Michael Moore vs. The Whale

20 January, 2006. 297 words.

What do Osama bin Laden, Michael Moore, Chris Matthews, and a whale all have in common? They are all hot topics in the blogosphere today.

Apparently, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews said on some show or another: “I mean he [bin Laden] sounds like an over the top Michael Moore here, if not a Michael Moore.” Personally, I thought it was pretty funny. But almost every liberal blogger is outraged. They are up in arms. They are demanding an immediate apology from Matthews. On the air. (The conservative blogs, meanwhile, are talking about a whale in the River Thames. Really.)

As near as I can tell, the lefty blogs want an apology because if Matthews had said, “bin Laden sounds like Rush Limbaugh [or any other famous conservative],” then the righty blogs and the conservative media would have been outraged. They see Matthews’s comment as proof that the conservative media can get away with saying anything they want about the left, so bloggers want democrats to stand up for their rights… to, I guess, not be compared with Osama bin Laden.

(Side note: Why do liberals see a conservative media, while conservatives see a liberal media? Why can’t they see it as the sensationalist media it really is? Just curious.)

I’m not a big fan of Michael Moore. He’s a talented filmmaker I guess, but as a person I think he’s gross, nerdy, exploitive, and slightly insane. His beliefs do not sound all that different from the beliefs of people who think the government is hiding alien technology. Do liberal bloggers really think he’s the one unassailable, infallible bastion of the left? I’m not sure I’d really want to admit that in public. That would be kind of like admitting that Abba was the greatest band of the 70s.

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