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The Problem
The 75th Academy Awards handed the Oscar® for "Best Documentary" to Michael Moore for Bowling for Columbine. Bowling is a nasty bit of anti-American propaganda. Viewers are taught that:
America was founded on violence and fear, as quarrelsome pilgrims fled to the new world, where their paranoia led them to massacre the Indians, then the British, and then each other;
The Columbine murderers' violence might have its roots in the fact that one had a father in our military (American soldiers are presumably murderers, and it must rub off on their kids) or that there was a defense contractor in the area;
Charlton Heston (one of Hollywood's few upstanding men) is a callous fool;
The terrorist attack on 9/11 is related to past American foreign policy -- in short, America's own fault;
(No need to go farther, you get the drift. No wonder it got a standing ovation at France's Cannes Film Festival.)
What you can do
It's time we take back the stage. Bowling for Columbine violated the Academy's own rules. These limit the documentary competition to nonfiction films. Bowling isn't nonfiction. Whenever it was necessary to his theme, Moore invented facts, fabricated events, staged scenes, or doctored the depiction of what actually happened. When Heston, for example, gave a mild and concilliatory speech, Moore simply edited the footage (and inserted footage from a different speech a year later) to make it sound arrogant.
Tip Jars
If you aren't already familiar with what he did, check:
http://www.opinionjournal.com/forms/printThis.html?id=110003233
http://www.hardylaw.net/Truth_About_Bowling.html
http://www.spinsanity.org/columns/20021119.html
http://www.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel040403.asp
The Academy can reward propaganda, if it pleases. It can reward anti-Americanism, if it pleases. But its own rules establish that it cannot reward fiction as "best documentary." We call upon the Academy to enforce its own rule.
Can we win out? Certainly. Public outrage over Bowling has peaked since Michael Moore's self-infatuated lecture during his Oscar® acceptance. The media has begun to cover the issue. Just two websites devoted to critcizing Moore and his film have experienced 250,000 unique visitors since his award. 250,000 voices is a lot of voices.
Here's how you join in the campaign
First, add your voice, using the email and addresses below (best of all, send email and a fax);
Then pass word about this page to your friends, to usenet groups, to the media, wherever you can let people know.
We have a sample letter, which you can use as the basis of your own. If you'd like to edit it up (which is the best approach, so it doesn't read like a form letter), here are some tips. (General rules: don't go into his politics, or his being one-sided. Stick to the fact that he lies. A documentary can be political or one-sided, but under the rules, it cannot be fictionalized.) We strongly urge everyone who plans to write a letter to read the tips page!
The letter can be sent to the address given in it , or faxed to: 310-859-9351 or 310-859-9619.
Email can be sent to ampas@oscars.org. Letters and faxes usually have more impact than email, so if you do email, try to send a hard copy as well. To get started on an email, you can use our web-based form here.
Mail hard copies to:
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Academy Foundation
The Problem
The 75th Academy Awards handed the Oscar® for "Best Documentary" to Michael Moore for Bowling for Columbine. Bowling is a nasty bit of anti-American propaganda. Viewers are taught that:
America was founded on violence and fear, as quarrelsome pilgrims fled to the new world, where their paranoia led them to massacre the Indians, then the British, and then each other;
The Columbine murderers' violence might have its roots in the fact that one had a father in our military (American soldiers are presumably murderers, and it must rub off on their kids) or that there was a defense contractor in the area;
Charlton Heston (one of Hollywood's few upstanding men) is a callous fool;
The terrorist attack on 9/11 is related to past American foreign policy -- in short, America's own fault;
(No need to go farther, you get the drift. No wonder it got a standing ovation at France's Cannes Film Festival.)
What you can do
It's time we take back the stage. Bowling for Columbine violated the Academy's own rules. These limit the documentary competition to nonfiction films. Bowling isn't nonfiction. Whenever it was necessary to his theme, Moore invented facts, fabricated events, staged scenes, or doctored the depiction of what actually happened. When Heston, for example, gave a mild and concilliatory speech, Moore simply edited the footage (and inserted footage from a different speech a year later) to make it sound arrogant.
Tip Jars
If you aren't already familiar with what he did, check:
http://www.opinionjournal.com/forms/printThis.html?id=110003233
http://www.hardylaw.net/Truth_About_Bowling.html
http://www.spinsanity.org/columns/20021119.html
http://www.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel040403.asp
The Academy can reward propaganda, if it pleases. It can reward anti-Americanism, if it pleases. But its own rules establish that it cannot reward fiction as "best documentary." We call upon the Academy to enforce its own rule.
Can we win out? Certainly. Public outrage over Bowling has peaked since Michael Moore's self-infatuated lecture during his Oscar® acceptance. The media has begun to cover the issue. Just two websites devoted to critcizing Moore and his film have experienced 250,000 unique visitors since his award. 250,000 voices is a lot of voices.
Here's how you join in the campaign
First, add your voice, using the email and addresses below (best of all, send email and a fax);
Then pass word about this page to your friends, to usenet groups, to the media, wherever you can let people know.
We have a sample letter, which you can use as the basis of your own. If you'd like to edit it up (which is the best approach, so it doesn't read like a form letter), here are some tips. (General rules: don't go into his politics, or his being one-sided. Stick to the fact that he lies. A documentary can be political or one-sided, but under the rules, it cannot be fictionalized.) We strongly urge everyone who plans to write a letter to read the tips page!
The letter can be sent to the address given in it , or faxed to: 310-859-9351 or 310-859-9619.
Email can be sent to ampas@oscars.org. Letters and faxes usually have more impact than email, so if you do email, try to send a hard copy as well. To get started on an email, you can use our web-based form here.
Mail hard copies to:
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Academy Foundation
