Grosses $24 Million in first weekend of release!
By Brad Friedman on 6/28/2004, 4:24pm PT  

Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 has become, in just three short days of nationwide release, the #1 Documentary film of all time, grossing $24 Million at this weekend's box office.

It has outpaced the lifetime totals all of Moore's previous docs (Roger & Me, Bowling for Columbine, etc.) in that time, as well as trouncing the #2 film of the weekend (White Chicks) by some $4.5 million, despite the latter being shown on a full 2,726 screens, while Moore's film was available on only 868 nationwide.

F9/11 in that same short time, has also, incidentally, become the most lied about film in Internet and Talk Radio history! As everyone from Slate's Christopher Hitchens, to O'Reilly (who only saw the first part of the film), to Rush (who hasn't seen it all) to the rest of the local Talkers out here in Los Angeles (ditto) have attempted in their panic --- and without success --- to describe "lies" in the film and/or discredit the filmmaker as fat, or a bad man, or a traitor, or any number of desperate rallying cries.

I've given you links above to a number of those breathless lies, distortions and misrepresentation. But let's take a look at just one. Here's just a snippet from Rush dissembling today:

The fact of the matter is that some of the lies there are in this movie are profound. One of them is that Bush authorized the bin Laden family to fly out when all the airports were closed after 9/11 because he's in bed with the Saudi royal family, he and his dad are, and it's all about oil, and therefore the attempt by Moore is to say that Bush knew that bin Laden's family was here and they let them go. Well, it wasn't Bush that authorized the bin Laden people in this country to leave. It was Richard Clarke, and he says so in his own book --- and Richard Clarke is held up as a hero in the Michael Moore movie.

Unfortunately, that paragraph --- despite going out to what Rush describes as "more people in a 15 minute period than saw the Michael Moore movie over the weekend" --- contains virtually nothing that one could call "truthful".

Moore does not claim that the flights described occurred when "all the airports were closed after 9/11", so that's just an out and out lie on Rush's part (or perhaps just an accident since he didn't actually see the film he was speaking of?). As well, surely Rush knows that even if Clarke signed the approval for those planes to leave, he was at the time, WORKING ON BEHALF OF THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION! The part about being "held up as a hero" in the movie is just an exaggeration in that yes, Clarke appears briefly in the movie as he gives some testimony to the 9/11 Commission, but the "hero" part is pure fabricated Rush Spin.

Rush is also telling his (apparently?) gullible listeners today...:

The one thing about this movie, about Fahrenheit 411 or whatever it is, this Michael Moore movie. This just cannot be allowed to stand. The publicity in this movie is it's the biggest movie of the weekend. It's the biggest movie ever. Really, they're saying that.

Really, Rush? Who's saying that? Because I haven't heard a one. I have heard it says it's the biggest movie of the weekend. I have heard it said it's the biggest documentary film of all time. Both of which are undisputable. But I've yet to hear anyone say that "It's the biggest movie ever". I welcome all Ditto Heads to show me such an instance. From anybody. Liar.

Spin on, Ditto Heads! Rock On, Lefties and Other Intellectually Honest Patriots who put their Country above partisan politics! November is just a few short months away! And perhaps then we can look forward to the beginning of the end of our long national nightmare!

(P.S. I've written a full review of Fahrenheit 9/11 but have not yet published it here for a number of reasons...Hopefully to be explained...and posted in full here shortly.)

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