WTF? Fox News likes F9/11?

I must be in some parallel universe.

I hate it when people try to monkey with my prejudices. Unlike the White Queen, I’m not capable of believing more than one impossible thing before breakfast. (And I have breakfast pretty darned late.)

According to two of my most dearly-held prejudices, Michael Moore is incapable of doing anything that isn’t dishonest and meretricious, and Fox News is merely an arm of the RNC.

I fully intended not to see Fahrenheit 9/11, even though I criticized Disney for refusing to distribute it and gleefully anticipated all the 30-second spots to be spun off from the trailer, especially the golfing scene at the end). I assumed that the Palme d’Or at Cannes mostly reflected the jury’s political views rather than its cinematic judgment. No doubt the MPAA was acting on some mixture of poor judgment and pure political cowardice in giving the film an R rating, but that belief doesn’t make me want to sit through the thing myself.

So I’m completely at a loss when a reviewer for Fox calls Farenheit 9-11

“a really brilliant piece of work, and a film that members of all political parties should see without fail … a tribute to patriotism, to the American sense of duty — and at the same time a indictment of stupidity and avarice.”

bzzzzzzt … Does not compute … does not compute … does not compute … bzzzzzzt

Hey! I’ve got it! Maybe the review is a fake, and someone hacked the Fox website to put it up.

Okay, that’s my story, and I’m sticking with it. Otherwise I might have to change my mind and actually see the damned thing.

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com