Exclusively in the new print issue of CounterPunch

HOLLYWOOD AND THE CIA — Film historian Ed Rampell details Hollywood’s entangled relationship with the CIA and the Pentagon; HOUSES OF THE DEAD: Nancy Kurshan exposes the cruel human rights offenses taking place inside America’s vast gulag of Control Unit Prisons; BROTHERHOOD OF SUMMER: David Macaray charts the history of the most powerful union in the US: the Baseball Players Association; TAR SANDS COME TO AMERICA: Steve Horn explains how the Keystone Pipeline debates have diverted attention from Big Oil’s other plans to transport Alberta’s oil into the US. PLUS: Jeffrey St. Clair on CONSTITUTIONAL ENTROPY; Mike Whitney on HOW THE BANKS TARGETED BLACKS; Chris Floyd on THE RISE OF BRITAIN’S TEA PARTY; Kristin Kolb on THE NEEDLE AND THE DAMAGE DONE; Kim Nicolini on the FILMS OF WILLIAM FRIEDKIN; and Lee Ballinger on POETS VS. THE ONE PERCENT.

June 30, 2004

Fahrenheit 9-11 and the FEC

Through the McCain-Feingold Looking Glass

by DAVID PRICE

Republican operatives are suggesting that advertisements for Michael Moore’s blockbuster film "Fahrenheit 9/11" must be subjected to the McCain-Feingold Bill’s political advertising restrictions. Because sections of McCain-Feingold limit certain forms of explicit political advertising these conservatives argue that "Fahrenheit 9/11" or its promotional advertisements should be treated as political ads and thus become subjected to federal limitation and regulation.

This is an interesting argument, and if these Bush supporters were to prevail in the courts the fallout of such a decision could have significant impact on media representations of political issues in America.

I have some simple advice for Michael Moore on how he might defend himself against these charges: He should hire either the most incompetent or rightwing-politically-biased legal representation available to defend him against these charges. (Perhaps Moore could coax some high profile legal talent like Marcia Clark or Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia to either accidentally or intentionally bungle his case for him–I’d personally suggest Scalia because he would not have recuse himself should an appeal of these issues later come before his court.)

If Moore launched a thoroughly incompetent legal defense to these charges and lost he could take a significant step towards establishing more balanced news coverage on the American airwaves. If Moore’s work can be seen as an explicit piece of campaign propaganda supporting a Kerry (or Nader for that matter) presidential bid, it is no stretch of logic or imagination to argue that most cable network news programming holds an equivalent position supporting Bush’s policies. The precedent established by losing such a case could be used to muzzle the propagandistic ads for virtually every program on the Fox "news" network, the 700 Club, Rush Limbaugh, and about six-sevenths of the programs airing on CNN.

Michael Moore would well serve his country if he would lie down and take a hit for equal time by using the worst available legal council to establish an absurd legal precedent that could then be weaponized against America’s right-wing media domination.

DAVID PRICE teaches anthropology at St. Martin’s College in Olympia, Washington. His latest book, Threatening Anthropology: McCarthyism and the FBI’s Surveillance of Activist Anthropologists has just been published by Duke University Press. He can be reached at: dprice@stmartin.edu