mdoneil writes “Fahrenheit 9/11 will be shown at ALA according to an email I received from the FLA listserv.
Mitch Freedman, immediate past president of ALA relates that the distributor, Lions Gate, in cooperation with the ALA is showing the film for $10 a pop.
No matter what your politics I’m sure you will have an opinion about this. Me, I’ll pay for Ray Bradbury’s ticket. But there is no need to get a large popcorn to share with me.”
Rochelle adds: I’d already posted this a journal article before I saw md’s post. The viewing will be a benefit for ALA’s intellectual freedom activities.
Hezbollah offers to help
“In the United Arab Emirates, the film is being offered the kind of support it doesn’t need. According to Screen International, the UAE-based distributor Front Row Entertainment has been contacted by organisations related to the Hezbollah in Lebanon with offers of help.” Best of the Web, Taranto offers this link.
RE: Fahrenheit 9/11 will be shown at ALA
If this is true, this is just one more example of the one-sided politicizing that ALA promotes. ALA is not interested in offerring balance on political issues or opportunity for those with other perspectives to express themselves. To show such a one-sided so-called “documentary” without opportunity for rebuttal is inexcusable. This is why I refuse to support ALA. This organization does not represent all librarians; it has become an organ to promote one-sided perspectives on political and social causes for which there is, in fact, a diversity of opinion even among librarians.
Re:Hezbollah offers to help
Should anyone be surprised at this? This plays right into the hands of terrorists we are truly at war with.
I don’t understand what a library association is doing showing this at an annual convention. This is clearly a strongly one-sided political piece. What kind of response would they give if another film supportive of the Iraqi war were to be shown. I guarantee you the same people defending the showing of Fahrenheit 9/11 would be up in arms and would do everything possible to prevent the showing of a film presenting an alternative perspective.
Re: Fahrenheit 9/11 will be shown at ALA
If you don’t want to see it, then don’t see it! Are there armed thugs holding a gun to your head, demanding “academicresearchlibr, you WILL watch this! Right NOW!”?? Aren’t there other things you can do at ALA? Maybe you could organize your own protest! Just grab some posterboard and a magic marker!
Surprisingly, I agree with the conservatives
I personally can’t wait to see the movie…and Bush out of office. But I agree with you that the ALA doesn’t seem interested in offering balance on political issue. My main reason for not supporting ALA, though, is the exhorbitant annual fee. As an anti-Bush person (nicely phrased, eh?), this kind of action by ALA just embarrasses me.
Re:Surprisingly, I agree with the conservatives
yeah, what exlibriscat says. well, except that i’m not a huge michael moore fan. but unless the movie’s being followed by a moderated discussion panel in which people of many political stripes deconstruct it and discuss its relevance to libraries, count me out.
well, not that i’ll be there anyway, but you know, in spirit.
Re: Fahrenheit 9/11 will be shown at ALA
Fahrenheit 911 is the rebuttal. It is a rebuttal to the propaganda, mendacity, hypocrisy, government by secrecy, genocide, oppression, and wilfull arrogance of power perpetrated by George Bush. Who, by the way, has a bully pulpit. This film is We The People exercising a right to free speech the Republican National Guard of Amerika throws shit fits over and would strip from the Bill of Rights along with everything else. Aside from which, nobody is saying that you are forbidden to criticize the film. You are perfectly at liberty to go and see it and then tell everyone what is wrong with it. Nor has your comment been summarily deleted from this board. It is the sycophants of the Bush administration who are attempting to silence dissent using the leverage of econonomic threats against honest businessmen, theater owners, who are simply trying to make a buck. You want to complain about one-sided? How come you aren’t criticizing Fox News, which has publicly stated that its purpose is to be blatantly partisan in an effort to “balance” the wrong-wing media. You do know, don’t you, that the bare faced terminological inexactitude of “the liberal press” was begun by Rush Limbaugh and immediately latched upon by the rest of the conservative ass-kissers. It is a trick typical of those who cannot reply to criticism that they attempt to discredit those who speak the truths they don’t want heard. So it is with Michael Moore.
Re:Surprisingly, I agree with the conservatives
When it was proposed on the law-lib listserve that the movie be shown at AALL, after some discussion of whether or not what Disney did can be considered an attempt at censorship (I think it can), I suggested that instead those wanting to see it should organize groups to go see it at the theaters that will be showing it while they’re here for the convention. This avoids offending those who find the content of the movie offensive, it avoids uspsetting those who, regardless of whether the content offends them, are worried that it might politicize AALL and even jeopardize its tax exemption, AND it will do a _lot_ more good for Michael Moore, the studio, the distributors, and the theaters that have chosen to show it despite having received a lot of pressure not to.
In short, it’s a strategy that’s a win for everyone involved, no matter what their opinion on Moore, the movie, or Bush.
Moreover, with Fahrenheit 9/11 having opened on an unusually large number of screens for a documentary, and doubtless being headed for even more screens next weekend due to its phenomenal take this weekend, it’s a strategy that can be applied almost anywhere. Don’t risk politicizing 501(c)(3) organizations; just get like-minded members together and go see it in the theater.