Dear Friends,

I don’t usually forward jokes or campaigns or calls to action and the like. So this is an exception (hopefully forgiven because it’s original).

Michael Moore’s documentary entitled “Fahrenheit 9/11” opens tomorrow, June 25th (the first showing in San Francisco is 12:01am). I want to encourage all of you to see it this weekend.

You can check Fandango’s website for listings: http:/
/www.fandango.com/movie_page.asp?mv=85329&aff=&source=fr2_t

Sure, you can wait for it to come out on VHS/DVD or to hit HBO, but there’s also the principle of consumers “voting with their dollars”. By seeing this movie this weekend you join a mass of people pushing F911 to be the biggest grossing documentary in history. Should it that mark, a loud message will be sent to Hollywood that there is a strong market for hard-hitting documentaries, and they’ll make more.

When I read history about the Muckrakers of the late 1800s or the investigative journalists who busted open scandals in the past (think Watergate), I feel sad. I feel sad that today’s news media is gutless, weak, noodle-spined ass-kissing entertainment barely pretending to be journalism.

The profit motive has spoken and it says printing press releases is more cost-effective than paying investigators to produce stories for Headline News or 60 Minutes. Fine. Tomorrow the Consumer gets to vote.

If 60 Minutes had been doing their job, Michael Moore wouldn’t have done it for them. But they didn’t, so he has, and I for one would like to see Hollywood take up the fallen flame of Muckrakers.

$12 for two hours to support hard-hitting journalism. You probably paid three times that for your cable, and when was the last time they blew your mind so efficiently? Besides, by all accounts, it’s a really good movie.

Peace,

• opendna