Michael Moore

The Daily Telegraph (London)

It must have been a gruesome sight: the elite of the Cannes film festival applauding someone even more self-regarding than themselves. Michael Moore, portly archpriest of the anti-Bush cult, premiered his film "Fahrenheit 9/11" at the festival this week. ...

Many of the claims made in "Bowling for Columbine," his Oscar-winning film about America's gun culture, have unraveled spectacularly under scrutiny. ... Many American commentators - including left-wing ones - are embarrassed by the crudity of his rhetoric, the unreliability of his "facts" and the gulf between his claim to represent blue-collar America and his personal lifestyle.

Mr. Moore lives on New York's Upper West Side and travels in corporate jets with a rock-star entourage. Asked about this by the Los Angeles Times, he implied that only middle-class journalists were bothered by the contradiction - "the working class just thinks it's cool.". ...

The truth about Moore is that this self-righteous critic of corporate America is one of its most bloated beneficiaries. It is time someone made a film about him - and ... someone is. ... Later this year, a young filmmaker, Mike Wilson, will unveil a documentary entitled "Michael Moore Hates America," in which the self-proclaimed "slob in a baseball cap" will find his techniques turned on himself.