Moore Hypocrisy

The latest edition of the e-journal Democratiya is now available. The journal is a review publication, produced by leftists who actually recognize the nature of the Islamist threat. While the whole issue makes for interesting reading, one essay in particular stood out: David R. Adler's review of Forgive Us Our Spins: Michael Moore and the Future of the Left. While I disagree with many of the views expressed by Mr. Adler, he makes some telling points about Moore's lack of honesty and principle. This passage in particular stood out:

Moore is the first to decry censorship when it happens to him. In the introduction to Dude, Where's My Country? he recalls how Regan Books withheld his previous title, Stupid White Men, in the aftermath of 9/11, and even insisted on a substantial rewrite. Moore takes pains to laud one lone librarian, Ann Sparanese, who created a firestorm of bad publicity for Regan, pressuring them to release the book as is. This is the same Ann Sparanese who received a drubbing from Nat Hentoff in the pages of The Village Voice in January 2004. The topic was Cuba – specifically, a wave of repression that swept the island in the spring of 2003. Even Chomsky and Zinn denounced these abuses, but not Sparanese. She went to bat for the Castro regime, stooping so low as to put the word 'crackdown' in quotes.[4] Moore, of course, isn't responsible for Sparanese's conduct, which occurred after his book was written. But clearly the indulgence of left authoritarianism typified by the Mother Jones affair persists in some quarters. Moore's flyleaf dedication to Sparanese – which reads, 'one simple act, a voice was saved/are there a million more of her/to save us all' – is simply embarrassing.


It's heartening that there are even some leftists who recognize the shameful hypocrisy of Moore and some of his radical librarian supporters.