I
was reading an interview with Michael Moore in Entertainment
Weekly
[paid subscription required] the other day, and was struck by how he
managed to get access to the footage that he used in
“Fahrenheit 9/11.”



For
example, one scene that particularly shocked viewers of the
documentary
was of Bush reading a book to some elementary school
children. 
While he was reading, he was interrupted and informed that the United
States was under attack (the SECOND plane had struck).  Bush then went on reading to the
kids
for another 7 minutes (after which, not shown in the film, he shook
hands and signed autographs for parents and teachers for a half
hour).  According to Moore, all he had to do to get such
incriminating evidence was to call the school and ask if they had made
a tape!  One of the teachers had set up a tripod and recorded
the
whole thing, then made copies for the parents.



Moore
also showed a lot of Iraq footage that hadn’t been seen
before, such as that
of wounded civilians and recuperating soldiers.  In the
interview,
Moore said he knew he’d have to do an “end run
around those at the
Pentagon and the way they were stage-managing the
news.”  To do
so, Moore got the footage from inside Iraq from foreign journalists,
freelancers, some people that he himself sent in, and even some
American reporters who “were disgusted by how the news was
being
censored and filtered and that Americans were only given one view of
the war.”



In
fact,
the Bush-on-the-golf-course footage also came from a disgruntled
member
of the American media.  Moore describes how long-term media
complicity made the Bush team lax: “They allow a pool camera
in only to
film the statement he's going to give. Nothing before or after — and
if you do film [before or after] you're not to use it. And publicists
from the White House will stand blocking the camera before the
statement starts and then move right back in to block the camera when
it's done. But by the summer of '02 the media had been so complicit in
presenting a good face on Bush [that] his people had started to relax,
because they knew that the media would censor themselves. And so, sure
enough, on the night when that ran, ‘A message to all
terrorists!’,
everyone had the rest of it and nobody ran it. Because of this implied
agreement that we're going to protect each other, Bush feels
comfortable enough making a crack like that. [‘Now, watch
this drive!’]”



Moore
also said that he easily got permission from the Marine Corps to film
recruiters because the Marine Corps just assumed that if the media are
calling, it must be a positive story!



P.S. 
Expecting a huge round of attacks from the right wing, Moore hired
former Kerry communications director, Chris Lehane, to handle it for
him!  EW sizes Lehane up by calling him “one of the
meanest
political advisors on the planet.”  Well, at least
it’s a trait
that finally came in handy.