Matt Taibbi responds in the New York Press to Chris Hitchens' rebuke of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11:
I'm off on this tangent because I'm enraged by the numerous attempts at verbose, pseudoliterary, "nuanced" criticism of Moore this week by the learned priests of our business. (And no, I'm not overlooking this newspaper.) Michael Moore may be an ass, and impossible to like as a public figure, and a little loose with the facts, and greedy, and a shameless panderer. But he wouldn't be necessary if even one percent of the rest of us had any balls at all.
If even one reporter had stood up during a pre-Iraq Bush press conference last year and shouted, "Bullshit!" it might have made a difference.[...]
Say what you want about Moore, but he picked himself up and did something, something approximating the role journalism is supposed to play. The rest of us—let's face it—are just souped-up shoe salesmen with lit degrees. Who should shut their mouths in the presence of real people.
In related news, one of my best friends out here, a reservist, is likely heading to Afghanistan for the better part of the next two years.
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Agreed.
As Americans, we roll over and lazily munch on our prepackaged foods ... click on our cable, pop open a beer and rant to the person next to us about the world.
But do we ever get off our spoiled, priviledged arses and work toward righting the injustices happening around and directly to us and our world?