Michael Moore - Role Model

In his article, Peter Schweizer successfully plants a seed of doubt about Michael Moore’s authenticity as a filmmaker. According to Schweizer Moore is a hypocrite, saying one thing and doing another. He calls Moore out on criticizing capitalism, racism, discrimination, evil corporations, the stock market, and the American lifestyle in general. However, Moore himself is contributing to what he so adamantly speaks against in his documentaries. For example, the fact that journalism employs blacks as only 5% of their workers infuriates Moore. Or so he claims, because of the people involved in creating his documentaries, Moore stays within this percentage himself.
Also, when speaking of capitalistic and money hungry Americans, Moore states “The system, inferior to that of much poorer nations, benefits the few at the expense of the many.” “Count Moore as one of the few,” says Schweizer. Moore lives in a wealthy neighborhood in Michigan, where none of his neighbors are white. Schweizer also criticizes Moore for playing the stock market, and contributing to corporations that he claims are evil in his films. Schweizer writes, “Although Moore publicly claims that he doesn’t invest in the stock market, he privately tells the IRS something completely different . . .Moore has also invested in energy giants like Noble Energy, Schlumberger, Williams Companies, Transocean Sedco Forex, and Anadarko, all firms that “deplete irreplaceable fossil fuels in the name of profit,” as Moore puts it.”
Schweizer claims that Moore is a hypocrite on every level of what he is preaching in his documentaries. He is pointing out flaws in American corporations, lifestyles, and prejudices while contributing to them in his personal life. I have seen a couple of Michael Moore’s documentaries, and found them to be highly opinionated and redundant. He pounds his point into the viewer again and again, not elaborating upon much aside from how bad what he is railing against is. Having read this article on Moore’s hypocrisy in his daily life, I am even less interested in what he has to say through his films.