Random Michael Moore Deceits [#5]

My Pet Goat [from Fahrenheit 9/11]

Fahrenheit mocks President Bush for continuing to read the book My Pet Goat to a classroom of elementary school children after he was told about the September 11 attacks. Actually, as reported in The New Yorker, the book was Reading Mastery 2, which contains an exercise called "The Pet Goat." The title of the book is not very important in itself, but the invented title of My Pet Goat makes it easier to ridicule Bush.

What Moore did not tell you:

Gwendolyn Tose’-Rigell, the principal of Emma E. Booker Elementary School, praised Bush’s action: "I don’t think anyone could have handled it better." "What would it have served if he had jumped out of his chair and ran out of the room?"…

She said the video doesn’t convey all that was going on in the classroom, but Bush’s presence had a calming effect and "helped us get through a very difficult day."

"Sarasota principal defends Bush from ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ portrayal," Associated Press, June 24, 2004. Also, since the President knew he was on camera, it was reasonable to expect that if he had suddenly sped out of the room, his hasty movement would have been replayed incessantly on television; leaving the room quickly might have exacerbated the national mood of panic, even if Bush had excused himself calmly.

Moore does not offer any suggestion about what the President should have done during those seven minutes, rather than staying calm for the sake of the classroom and of the public. Nor does Moore point to any way that the September 11 events might have turned out better in even the slightest way if the President had acted differently. I agree with Lee Hamilton, the Vice-Chair of the September11 Commission and a former Democratic Representative from Indiana: "Bush made the right decision in remaining calm, in not rushing out of the classroom."

Moreover, as detailed by the Washington Times, Ari Fleischer was in the back of the classroom, holding up a legal pad with the words, "DON'T SAY ANYTHING YET." The Secret Service may well have been cautious about moving Bush, not only because of hijackings, but also because on the morning of September 11, a Middle Eastern man had tried to gain personal access to the President by falsely claiming that he was a journalist with a scheduled interview, and by asking for a Secret Service agent by name

source

Michael Moore will falsify even the smallest detail in order to heighten his mockery of George Bush. On the fatal morning of September 11th, 2001 George Bush was at a scheduled photo-op at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School promoting his school-reform program. The cameras were rolling as the President of the United States sat silently as students read aloud passages from a book titled Reading Mastery 2. Among this book’s offerings is a story titled The Pet Goat. Michael Moore knew all of this, and yet he made a point of telling his Fahrenheit audience that George Bush was reading a book titled My Pet Goat because he thought this false detail would make the president look more ridiculous.

Moore does his best to make Mr. Bush appear confused and indecisive by presenting a time-lapse montage of the president continuing to sit with the students after being told by Andy Card that a second jet had struck a building in New York City. Moore knows that his audience cannot erase from memory all that they later learned about the 9/11 attacks; they cannot return to that first moment when this news was new. So the audience, with its vast fund of memories, sits in the dark watching a man who has only just received the first bare-bones report of a jet crash in a far-away city and asks “Why is he just sitting there?” Moore encourages his audience to believe that Mr. Bush is not leaping to his feet because he is an idiot. Moore would never suggest that our president did our nation a favor by not jumping up like a startled rabbit and inclining the nation toward panic. This moment was, after all, a photo opportunity and the visual media were capturing every detail. It had become an opportunity to communicate to the world that the President of the United States would not be taken captive by the mood of panic that the terrorists were striving to create. Power politics before the cameras is pure theater and sometimes there is genius in calm reserve.

In any case, the Secret Service was in no hurry to move the president from his secure position. Word came in that a Middle Eastern man had tried to gain physical access to the president that morning by falsely claiming to be a journalist with a scheduled interview. Off camera, things were happening at a furious pace. The intelligence network was trying to form a comprehensive picture of the attack; all aircraft were being called down out of the sky. In the back of the classroom Ari Fleischer, out of sight of the media, held up a legal pad on which he had written the words “DON’T SAY ANYTHING YET.”

George Bush can be clearly seen in Moore’s lingering close up of the president as he looks up and nods in acknowledgement. Events were unfolding; information was pouring in but there was still no clear picture of the source or extent of the threat; air traffic was going into lockdown and the local first responders were rising to the challenge locally. The president was not about to start making statements that might make matters more confusing. As Lee Hamilton, former Democratic Representative and vice-chairman of the September 11 Commission later observed: “Bush made the right decision in remaining calm, in not rushing out of the classroom.” The principal of the school, who was an eyewitness, told the Associated Press, “I don’t think anyone could have handled it better.”

Michael Moore knew all this before he sat down to patch together his constricted vision of George Bush’s morning at the school, but he chose to conceal this information because he has no respect for his ticket buyers. Moore himself was incapable of offering any suggestions about what the president might have done in those few minutes that would have changed events for the better. Moore is a cunning film editor but a shallow thinker; he cuts and pastes together film montages in the hope that his cinematic trickery will somehow transcend the limits of his intelligence. So far, the mental low-watts on the Left have kept his hope alive.

The New York Times did its best to promote Moore’s efforts to mislead the American public. The Sunday, June 20, 2004 New York Times showcased an article about Fahrenheit 9/11 which included this:

“Besides, it may turn out that the most talked-about moments in the film are the least impeachable. Mr. Moore makes extensive use of obscure footage from the White House and network-news archives, including long scenes that capture President Bush at his least articulate. For the White House, the most devastating segment of ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ may be the video of a befuddled-looking President Bush staying put for nearly seven minutes at a Florida elementary school on the morning of Sept. 11, continuing to read a copy of ‘My Pet Goat’ to schoolchildren even after an aide has told him that a second plane has struck the twin towers. Mr. Bush’s slow, hesitant reaction to the disastrous news has never been a secret. But seeing the actual footage, with the minutes ticking by, may prove more damaging to the White House than all the statistics in the world.”

This is from the left-leaning newspaper that calls itself “the newspaper of record,” by which they mean the one that historians will refer back to. But this article was written long after the event described and long after the Times should have gathered the facts that I have explained above. And yet, here is the Times presenting to the public exactly the constricted and context-depleted vision of those few minutes that Michael Moore wants to promote. The Timeseven refers to “a copy of ‘My Pet Goat’” a book that doesn’t exist; it’s a Michael Moore invention; so are the “seven minutes” which were actually five minutes. By relying on Moore for its “facts” the Times has, in effect, made Michael Moore a New York Times reporter of record. Paging Jason Blair!

The Times even included an unflattering picture of the president; my newspaper clipping archive reveals that it’s the same unflattering photo that they used to decorate another article showcasing Fahrenheit 9/11 that ran in the Sunday, May 23rd, 2004 New York Times.

In that article Frank Rich recycled Michael Moore’s context-depleted vision: “Instead of recycling images of the planes hitting the World Trade Center on 9/11 once again, Mr. Moore can revel in extended close-ups of the president continuing to read ‘My Pet Goat’ to elementary school students in Florida for nearly seven long minutes after learning of the attack.”

Once again, there were no “seven long minutes;” watching a static shot of some guy sitting in a chair can seem longer, much longer, to folks who are sitting in a darkened theater waiting to be entertained. If Frank Rich had paid attention he would have known that at no time did the president read aloud to the children; they read aloud to him. Michael Moore did everything he could to increase the tedium of those minutes so that they would seem like years. People who think that they are getting insightful analyses from the New York Times are deluding themselves.

source

What the movies says:

Fahrenheit 9/11: “As the attack took place, Mr. Bush was on his way to an elementary school in Florida. When informed of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center, where terrorists had struck just 8 years prior, Mr. Bush decided to go ahead with his photo opportunity. When the second plane hit the tower, his chief of staff entered the classroom and told Mr. Bush the nation is under attack. Not knowing what to do, with no one telling him what to do, and no Secret Service rushing in to take him to safety, Mr. Bush just sat there and continued to read My Pet Goat with the children. Nearly seven minutes passed with nobody doing anything.”

[...]

Moore’s assertion here is much more than just the seven minutes (actually, is was closer to five) Here is a site with a frame by frame of the video showing a 5 minute timeline: But 7 sound more ominous.

Moore provides a voice over in the film during the roughly 3 ½ minutes of the video shown in the film. In the film , Moore omits several parts of the story and replaces them with this:

“When the second plane hit the tower, his Chief of Staff entered the classroom and told Mr. Bush the nation is under attack. Not knowing what to do, with no one telling him what to do, and no Secret Service rushing in to take him to safety, Mr. Bush just sat there and continued to read ‘My Pet Goat’ with the children. Nearly seven minutes passed with nobody doing anything. [...]”

Rather than argue over whether it was five minutes or seven minutes, I’d rather look at what Moore actually says in the film:

"When the second plane hit the tower, his Chief of Staff entered the classroom and told Mr. Bush the nation is under attack."

So far, so good.

"Not knowing what to do, with no one telling him what to do, and no Secret Service rushing in to take him to safety, Mr. Bush just sat there and continued to read ‘My Pet Goat’ with the children"

Now, Moore is guessing at best here. In Bush’s own words about “not knowing what to do”:

Bush told Larry King:

“Well, I had just been told by (White House Chief of Staff) Andrew Card that America was under attack. And I was collecting my thoughts, I think what’s important is how I reacted when I realized America was under attack. It didn’t take me long to figure out we were at war.”

This contradicts Moore’s assertion that Bush “didn’t know what to do”, but there’s a larger point to be made here. Despite the President taking a few minutes to “collect his thoughts” there were many other things happening at the same time which were not captured by the school room video.

For example:

quote Moore:

"no Secret Service rushing in to take him to safety,"

What Moore doesn’t tell you, is that the Secret Service had already dealt with some “strange circumstances” that morning concerning the security of the President.;

From the Longboat observer [http://www.longboatobserver.com/showarticle.asp?ai=1874]:

"At about 6 a.m. Sept. 11, Longboat Key Fire Marshall Carroll Mooneyhan was at the front desk of the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort as Bush prepared for his morning jog. From that vantage point, Mooneyhan overheard a strange exchange between a Colony receptionist and security guard.
A van occupied by men of Middle Eastern descent had pulled up to the Colony stating they had a “poolside” interview with the president, Mooneyhan said. The self-proclaimed reporters then asked for a Secret Service agent by name. Guards from security relayed the request to the receptionist, who had not heard of either the agent or plans for an interview, Mooneyhan said.
The receptionist gave the phone over to a nearby Secret Service agent, who said the same thing — no one knew of an agent by that name or of any poolside interview.
The agent told the occupants of the van to contact the president’s public relations office in Washington, D. C., and turned them away from the premises, Mooneyhan said.
In light of the attacks, Mooneyhan wonders if what he witnessed is related to the events of Sept. 11.
So does the FBI.
“That’s very strange,” said an unnamed agent with the Sarasota field office of the FBI, who directed agents to look into the matter.
Earlier, the FBI questioned a Longboat Key man who also had a strange run-in with a van occupied by men of Middle Eastern descent.
At 8:50 a.m. the man stood on the Sarasota bayfront waiting to watch the presidential motorcade pass. A dilapidated van passed him with two men of Middle Eastern descent “screaming out the windows, ‘Down with Bush’ and raising their fists in the air.”
The Longboat Key resident later reported the incident to police, who turned the matter over to FBI agents who questioned him."

The Secret Service was already at a state of unusally heightened alert because of this earlier incident. Given the circumstances,the Secret Service wouldn’t have rushed IN to secure Bush’s safety, rather, given the experiences of the morning, they would have rushed OUTSIDE to secure the area.

Without this part of the story, Moore is able to paint a picture of confusion on Bush’s part, rather than an instance of policy within the Secret Service which the President ( any president, that is) will NEVER discuss. He would simply rather say “I was collecting my thoughts” than explain how his security detail works.

This explaination goes a long way to explain the short time (five minutes) in which Bush remained in his chair.

Let me take a second to interject a few admittedly “nitpicky” items here. I have seen the video, and at no point does Bush appear to “read “ the book. As for the title, Moore got that wrong too. It’s actually Siegfried Engelmann’s story from the book called Reading Mastery page 153 , lesson 60 actually titled The Pet Goat. (It’s not a story book at all, rather, a reading textbook)

Okay, back to the real story. How could Bush possibly know what the Secret Service was doing at the time since he was clearly seated in a chair with his back to the door? Well........According to the Washington times report, Ari Fleischer was in the room holding a handmade sign with big block letters:

UPDATED** The Washington post link. Hat tip to LD. [http://web.archive.org/web/20030412182814/www.washtimes.com/national/20021007-85016651.htm]

"The president noticed someone moving at the back of the room. It was White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, maneuvering to catch his attention without alerting the press. Mr. Fleischer was holding up a legal pad. Big block letters were scrawled on the cardboard backing: DON’T SAY ANYTHING YET."

Given these two simple explainations, the secret service’s action and Fleischer’s sign telling Bush to wait, one can easily see how Bush would take the available time to try to collect his thought for a few moments. How long is a few moments? Well, if you’re an average reader, and didn’t click on any of the links, you just spent about 7 minutes and 15 seconds reading this article so far. ( I timed it 3 times and averaged, okay?)

Moore also contends:

"Nearly seven minutes passed with nobody doing anything."

Apparently “nobody doing nothing” excludes the Secret Service and Ari Fleischer [...]

source