Brian Moore
Brian Moore in an official campaign photo after being elected the Socialist Party USA Presidential nominee on October 20, 2007.
Personal details
Born	Brian Patrick Moore (1943-06-08) June 8, 1943 (age 69) Oakland, California
Political party	Democratic
Other political affiliations	Socialist Green Independent Republican Liberty Union (affiliated non-member)
Spouse(s)	Peggy Espejo
Children	Sarah, Christopher, Timothy
Alma mater	San Luis Rey College, Arizona State University
Religion	Roman Catholic
Website	Vote Brian Moore

Brian Patrick Moore (born June 8, 1943) is an United States politician and founder of antiwar organization Nature Coast Coalition for Peace & Justice. He was the presidential nominee of the Socialist Party USA for the 2008 United States presidential election. He waged several campaigns for mayor and city council in Washington, D.C. and twice ran for the United States House of Representatives from Florida's 5th congressional district, winning none. He ran for the Democratic Party nomination for Governor of Florida in 2010, but lost in the primary election.

During his presidential campaign, Moore supported strengthening the working class and pledged to withdraw troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, and reduce the budget for the Department of Defense by 50%. During his presidential campaign he claimed that the current economic system was falling apart because of capitalism's "own greed".

Background[link]

Moore earned a bachelor's degree at San Luis Rey College in California, a Master's degree in Public Administration from Arizona State University, and studied in a Franciscan Catholic seminary before joining the Peace Corps in 1969. As a Peace Corps volunteer and later working for a non-profit agency, Moore was involved in community development and infrastructure projects in impoverished neighborhoods of Bolivia, Panama and Peru. He has worked almost 20 years in the HMO/Managed Care industry as an Executive Director, Project Administrator, and Consultant.

Internationally, Moore has been involved in community development, reconstruction and infrastructure rehabilitation projects (housing, water, electricity and sewage) in the developing and poverty-stricken countries of Panama, Peru, and Ecuador. For more than five years, Moore designed and implemented programs for public health projects (vaccination and health education) in Latin America (Brazil, Guatemala, Colombia, Dominican Republic and Mexico) and Tanzania, Africa, in coordination with and on behalf of private corporations, religious institutions and non-governmental organizations. Moore raised $3 million for a de-worming project that successfully protected more than one million children from parasitic infections in the poverty-stricken areas of Brazil, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.^{[citation needed]}

Politics[link]

Moore was a member of the Democratic Party and worked as the 1976 New Mexico coordinator for Terry Sanford, who lost the nomination to Jimmy Carter.^[1] The experience turned Moore off the Democrats to becoming independent because "the Democrats threw over this liberal, progressive guy."^[1] He volunteered for independents John B. Anderson in 1980 presidential election and Ralph Nader in 2004 and supported Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan in the 2000 presidential election because Buchanan "was for fair trade over free trade. He had some progressive positions that I thought would be helpful to the common man."^[1] In the 1980s, Moore was elected to three terms on an Advisory Neighborhood Commission in Washington, D.C. Moore waged several unsuccessful bids for mayor and city council in Washington, D.C., and twice ran for the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 5th congressional district.^[2]

According to John P. Martin, Moore's highest election tally came during his run for city council in 1984, in which he drew 18,497 votes.^[3]

In 1994, he ran as a Republican and won 640 votes in the primary.^[3]

In 2006, running as a Green Party-endorsed^[4][5] independent anti-war candidate against Sen. Bill Nelson and Republican challenger Katherine Harris, Moore polled 19,695 votes. During that campaign, he called for the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Ralph Nader endorsed Moore in the race.^[1]

In 2007, he became a socialist and joined the Socialist Party USA as a presidential candidate for the 2008 election.^[1] Moore says being called a socialist by opponents opened him up to the movement. Although he was new to the party and socialism, his experience as a grassroots candidate and an elected official as well as his media savvy may have been what helped him get the nomination over party veterans.

2008 presidential campaign[link]

Moore, of Florida, and vice-presidential nominee Stewart Alexander of California, were nominated on October 20, 2007 at the Socialist Party USA's National Convention in St. Louis, Missouri, where their ticket won by four votes.^[1][6] Moore also was the only candidate to collect the 1,000 signatures required to participate in the Liberty Union Party's presidential primary. He was on the ballot under the Socialist Party USA in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, and Wisconsin, and on the ballot under the Liberty Union Party in Vermont. He was also available as a write-in candidate in several other states.^[7] On election day Moore received 6,528 votes nationally.^[8] His best showing was in Tennessee, where he received 1,326 votes out of 2,614,000 votes cast.^[9]

On October 28, 2008, Moore appeared on the Colbert Report and dismissed accusations from John McCain that Barack Obama is a Socialist.^[10]

Political positions[link]

A founder and chair of the Nature Coast Coalition for Peace & Justice, an anti-war group founded in 2002, Moore has been a persistent critic of U.S. military involvement in Iraq. He is an advocate for democratic public control of the economy and society, participatory democracy, universal health care, greater employment, and housing for all.

Moore wants to "get rid of the for-profit system" and calls for Wall Street to be made into a "socially owned democratic authority of economists, experts and consumers who are not part of consumer America, to oversee these banks, to form credit unions, state banks."^[1] He proposes that under his system, the best-paid would make no more than 10 times what the lowest-paid worker receives.^[1]

2010 Florida gubernatorial candidate[link]

Moore unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic Party nomination for the 2010 Florida gubernatorial election.^[11] Moore lost to Florida's Chief Financial Officer, Democrat Alex Sink in the primary.

He received 23.09% (199,247) of the vote while his opponent Alex Sink won with 76.91% (663,510) out of 862,757 total votes cast.^[12]

Brian Moore was endorsed by the American Socialist Party for which he is a local organizer.^[13]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikinews has related news: Wikinews interviews Brian Moore, Socialist Party USA presidential candidate

• Official gubernatorial campaign site
• OurCampaigns.com
• Candidate profile at Project Vote Smart
• Interview with Brian Moore

Brian Moore may refer to:

• Brian Moore (commentator) (1932-2001)
• Brian Moore (novelist) (1921-1999)
• Brian Moore (police officer), Head of the UK Border Force and Former Chief Constable of Wiltshire Police, England
• Brian Moore (politician) (born 1943), Socialist Party USA and Liberty Union Party nominee for president
• Brian Moore (rugby league), Australian rugby league footballer and coach
• Brian Moore (rugby union) (born 1962), English rugby union footballer and commentator
• Brian Moore (HIT professional) (born 1983), Lean, Mean, EHR machine

This disambiguation page lists articles about people with the same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

A poster of Joe McCann from 1972

Joe McCann (2 November 1947 - 15 April 1972) was an Irish Republican Army and later Official Irish Republican Army volunteer from Belfast. He was active in politics from the early 1960s and participated, as an Official IRA volunteer, in the early years of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. He was killed after being confronted by the R.U.C. Special Branch and British soldiers in 1972 aged 24.

Early life[link]

He was born in the Lower Falls area of Belfast, and spent most of his life there and in the nearby Markets area of the city. His mother died when he was four years old leaving behind Joe and three other children. His father remarried having another three children with his second wife. He was educated in the Christian Brothers school on Barracks Street in Belfast, where he developed an interest in the Irish language. A bricklayer by trade, he joined the Fianna at age 14 and the IRA in the early 1960s.

In 1964 he was involved in a riot on Divis Street in Belfast in opposition to the threat of loyalist leader Ian Paisley to march on the area to remove an Irish tricolour flying over the election office of Billy McMillen. In 1965 he was arrested for the possession of bayonets with five other men. The five refused to answer questions in custody or to speak in court and were sentenced to a three years in prison. They served nine months in Crumlin Rd jail. McCann had had expressed an interest in the priesthood while a teenager and became more religiously committed in prison. He joined the third order of the Franciscans in his later teens.

McCann was active in the IRA's involvement in the civil rights agitation; protesting against the development of the Divis flats which were being built to replace the old tenement slums in the Lower Falls. McCann became Officer in Command (O.C.) of the IRA in the Markets, involved in housing issues and any matters which related to local government.

In 1969, after sectarian rioting in Belfast, the IRA split into two factions; the newly created Provisional Irish Republican Army, traditionalist militarists, and the existing organisation, which became known as the Official IRA, Marxist-oriented socialists. McCann sided with the Officials as he felt they had a better political analysis. His brothers Dennis, Patrick and Brian also joined the OIRA.

In the rioting of August 1969, McCann participated in armed defence of the Lower Falls area.

McCann married Anne McKnight who hailed from a strong republican family in the Markets area in Belfast. Anne's older brother Bobby McKnight was part of the 1956-62 border campaign and was arrested and jailed as well as being interned. Bobby was command staff in Belfast played a key role in the arms deals that went on between the IRA and the Irish government of 1969. Anne's brother Seán sided with the Provisionals after the 1969 split. He went on to represent South Belfast for Sinn Féin

Armed activities[link]

McCann was appointed commander of the OIRA's Third Belfast Battalion. By 1970, violence in Northern Ireland had escalated to the point, where British soldiers were deployed there in large numbers. From 3–5 July 1970, McCann was involved in gun battles during the Falls Curfew between the Official IRA and up to 3,000 British soldiers in the Lower Falls area that left four civilians dead from gunshot wounds, another killed after being hit by an armoured car and 60 injured.^[1] On 22 May 1971, McCann's unit ambushed a British patrol, killing one soldier.

In another incident McCann led a unit which captured 3 UVF members in Sandy Row. The UVF had raided an OIRA arms dump earlier that day and the OIRA announced they would execute the three prisoners if the weapons were not returned. McCann eventually released the three UVF members because they were "working class men like yourself".^[2]

His most famous act came on 9 August 1971 when his unit took over the Inglis bakery in the Markets area and fortified it after the introduction of internment without trial by the Northern Ireland authorities (see Operation Demetrius). They defended it throughout the night from an incursion by 600 British soldiers, looking to arrest paramilitary suspects.^[3] The action allowed other IRA members to slip out of the area and avoid arrest. He was photographed during the incident, holding an M1 carbine, against the background of a burning building and the Starry Plough flag; one of the most striking early images of The Troubles.

In early February 1972, he was involved in the attempted assassination of Ulster Unionist politician and Northern Ireland Minister for Home Affairs. John Taylor in Moira, County Down. McCann and another gunman fired on Taylor's car with Thompson submachine guns, hitting him five times in the neck and head, but he survived, though badly injured. In another incident he and a comrade were standing outside a Belfast cinema to purchase tickets for the film Soldier Blue when McCann spotted a British Army checkpoint. He drew his gun and fired at the soldiers before running away laughing.^[4]

Death[link]

Joe McCann was killed on 15 April 1972 in Joy St in The Markets. McCann had been sent to Belfast by a member of the Dublin command as he was at the top of the RUC Special Branch wanted list. He was told by the Official IRA Belfast command to return for his own safety to Dublin. However he ignored their requests and remained in Belfast.

The RUC Special Branch was aware of his presence in Belfast and were on the look out for him. he was spotted by an RUC officer on the morning of his death who reported his whereabouts to the British Parachute Regiment, who were carrying out a road block in the immediate area at the time. McCann was approached by the RUC officer who informed him that he was under arrest. McCann was unarmed and tried to run to safety when confronted by the soldiers. He was shot dead at the corner of Joy Street and Hamilton Street after a chase on foot through the Markets.

Ten cartridge cases were found close to his body, indicating that he had been shot repeatedly at close range. Bullet holes were also visible in the walls of nearby houses.^[5]

McCann was the leader of the most militant of the OIRA's members in Belfast and was much more enthusiastic about the use of "armed struggle" in Northern Ireland than the OIRA leadership. His killing was closely followed by the organisation calling a ceasefire. As a result, it was rumoured that the reason that McCann was unarmed when he was killed was that the Official leadership had confiscated his personal weapon, a .38 pistol. Some former OIRA members have even alleged that McCann's killing was set up by their Dublin leadership.^[6]

Five days of rioting followed his death. Turf Lodge, where McCann lived, was a no-go area and was openly patrolled by an OIRA land rover with the words "Official IRA - Mobile Patrol" emblazoned on the side. The OIRA shot five British soldiers, killing three, in revenge for McCann's killing, in different incidents the following day in Belfast, Derry and Newry.^[7]

Funeral and tributes[link]

McCann's funeral on 18 April 1972 was one of the largest Republican funerals of modern times. Between 6,000 and 20,000 mourners attended it. A guard of honour was provided by 20 OIRA volunteers and a further 200 women followed carrying flowers and wreaths. Four MPs including Bernadette Devlin were also in attendance. Cathal Goulding the Official IRA Chief of Staff, provided the graveside oration in Milltown Cemetery. Goulding said;

"By shooting Joe McCann [the British Government] their Whitelaws and their Heaths and their Tuzos have shown the colour of their so called peace initiatives. They have re-declared war on the people...We have given notice, by action that no words can now efface, that those who are responsible for the terrorism that is Britain's age old reaction to Irish demands will be the victim of that terrorism, paying richly in their own red blood for their crimes and the crimes of their imperial masters".^[8]

In spite of this hardline rhetoric, however, Goulding called a ceasefire just six weeks later, on 29 May 1972.

One of the more surprising tributes to McCann came from Gusty Spence, leader of the Ulster Volunteer Force loyalist group. Spence wrote a letter of sympathy to McCann's widow, expressing his, "deepest and profoundest sympathy" on the death of her husband. "He was a soldier of the Republic and I a Volunteer of Ulster and we made no apology for being what we were or are...Joe once did me a good turn indirectly and I never forgot him for his humanity". This is thought to refer to an incident in which three UVF men wandered into the Lower Falls, were captured by OIRA men, but were released unharmed on McCann's orders.^[9][10]

In 1997, a plaque was unveiled at the spot on Joy street in the Markets where McCann was killed. Members of the various republican factions, the Workers' Party of Ireland (ex Official IRA), Sinn Féin (political wing of the Provisional IRA) and the Irish Republican Socialist Party (a splinter, along with the Irish National Liberation Army from the Official republican movement in 1974) were all in attendance.

References[link]

1. ^ Patrick Bishop, Eamon Mallie, The Provisional IRA (1988), p159
2. ^ Hanley & Millar, B & S (2009). The Lost Revolution: The story of the Official IRA and the Workers Party. Ireland: Penguin Ireland. pp. 163. ISBN 978-1-84488-120-8. 
3. ^ Jack Holland, Henry McDonald, Deadly Divisions, p10
4. ^ Hanley & Millar, B & S (2009). The Lost Revolution: The story of the Official IRA and the Workers Party. Ireland: Penguin Ireland. pp. 167. ISBN 978-1-84488-120-8. 
5. ^ Holland, McDonald, Deadly Divisions, p11
6. ^ Holland, McDonald, p11
7. ^ Holland, McDonald, p11
8. ^ Holland, McDonald p14
9. ^ Bishop, Mallie, p238-239
10. ^ Hanley & Millar, B & S (2009). The Lost Revolution: The story of the Official IRA and the Workers Party. Ireland: Penguin Ireland. pp. 178–179. ISBN 978-1-84488-120-8. 

The Lost Revolution The Story of The Official I.R.A. and The Workers Party. Hanley and Miller. Penguin 2009.

Sources[link]

• Patrick Bishop, Eamonn Mallie, The Provisional IRA
• Jack Holland, Henry McDonald, INLA, Deadly Divisions
• http://www.irelandsown.net/JoeMcCann.htm

The Lost revolution the story of The Official I.R.A. and the workers party. Hanley and Miller. Penguin, 2009.

External links[link]

• Official Joe McCann Website
• The famous photo of McCann at Inglis' bakery in 1971
• Poster based on the photo of McCann at Inglis' bakery in 1971
• Memorial to McCann in Belfast
• Time Magazine article about McCann's death from 1972

Neil Cavuto
Neil Cavuto, 2007
Born	(1958-09-22) September 22, 1958 (age 53) Westbury, New York, United States
Occupation	TV anchor, commentator and executive for Fox Business Network and Fox News Channel
Website
Your World at FOXNews.com

Neil Patrick Cavuto (born September 22, 1958) is an American television anchor and commentator on the Fox Business Network and host of three television programs, Your World with Neil Cavuto and Cavuto on Business, both on the Fox News Channel and Cavuto on sister channel Fox Business Network.

Cavuto also tapes a nightly wrap-up of business news which airs on local FOX affiliates during the late news and has a syndicated radio business news segment that airs on weekday afternoons. He is the senior vice president and managing editor of business news for the Fox Business Network, and oversees content and business coverage. He is the author of two books.

Early life[link]

Cavuto was born in Westbury, New York, and raised in Danbury, Connecticut, where he attended Immaculate High School. He worked as a White House intern during U.S. president Jimmy Carter's administration, graduated from St. Bonaventure University, and earned a master's degree from American University.^[1]

Career[link]

Neil Cavuto became the managing editor of business news and television anchor of Your World with Neil Cavuto on Fox News Channel in July 1996, later becoming a vice president of business news in March 2006. He serves all three positions concurrently. Your World is Fox's main business news program.

Before joining Fox, he hosted Power Lunch on CNBC and contributed to NBC's Today. He worked with the Public Broadcasting Service for 15 years. He was also a New York City bureau chief.

He has been awarded numerous times by his peers in the journalism industry, including recognition by the Wall Street Journal as the best interviewer in business news, best business television interviewer four consecutive years, and five nominations for Cable ACE awards.^[2] Cavuto was also awarded the 1980 Hellinger Award, the highest award for graduating journalism students from St. Bonaventure University. Cavuto has Interviewed many high profile business, political and world leaders.

Cavuto is the author of More Than Money, 2004, (ISBN 0060096438) and Your Money or Your Life, 2005, (ISBN 0060826177).^[3] Both books were New York Times best sellers.^[1]

Personal life[link]

Cavuto and his wife, Mary Fulling, whom he married on October 15, 1983, have three children, Tara, Bradley and Jeremy. They reside in Mendham, New Jersey.^[4]

Cavuto has suffered health problems,^[5][6] saying:

"I don't hide that I have had a tough life in many respects. I fought back a near-life-ending cancer, only to end up with multiple sclerosis years later. Doctors have since told me that the odds of contracting both diseases in the same life are something like two million to one! Yet here I am, marching on, continuing to do my job when doctors who've examined my scans and MRIs tell me I shouldn't be walking or talking."^[7]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Neil Cavuto

• Neil Cavuto's Bio on FoxBusiness.com
• Neil Cavuto's Bio on FoxNews.com
• Cavuto writes about his first book

Michael Moore
Moore in New York to promote his memoir Here Comes Trouble, September 2011
Born	Michael Francis Moore (1954-04-23) April 23, 1954 (age 58) Flint, Michigan, United States[1]
Alma mater	University of Michigan–Flint
Occupation	Actor, director, screenwriter, producer
Years active	1972–present[2]
Religion	Roman Catholic[3]
Spouse	Kathleen Glynn (1991–present)
Website
michaelmoore.com

Michael Francis Moore (born April 23, 1954) is an American filmmaker, author, social critic and activist.^[4] He is the director and producer of Fahrenheit 9/11, which is the highest-grossing documentary of all time.^[5] His films Bowling for Columbine and Sicko also place in the top ten highest-grossing documentaries.^[5] In September 2008, he released his first free movie on the Internet, Slacker Uprising, which documented his personal quest to encourage more Americans to vote in presidential elections.^[6] He has also written and starred in the TV shows TV Nation and The Awful Truth.

Moore criticizes globalization, large corporations, assault weapon ownership, U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton^[7] and George W. Bush, the Iraq War, the American health care system, and capitalism in his written and cinematic works.

Personal life[link]

Moore was born in Flint, Michigan,^[1] and raised in Davison, a suburb of Flint, by parents Veronica (née Wall), a secretary, and Frank Moore, an automotive assembly-line worker.^[8][9][10] At that time, the city of Flint was home to many General Motors factories, where his parents and grandfather worked. His uncle LaVerne was one of the founders of the United Automobile Workers labor union and participated in the Flint Sit-Down Strike.^[11]

Moore was brought up Catholic,^[12] attended parochial St. John's Elementary School for primary school and later attended St. Paul's Seminary in Saginaw, Michigan, for a year.^{[13][8][14][15][16]} He then attended Davison High School, where he was active in both drama and debate,^[17] graduating in 1972. As a member of the Boy Scouts of America, he achieved the rank of Eagle Scout.^[8] At the age of 18, he was elected to the Davison school board.^[18]

Since 1990, Moore has been married to producer Kathleen Glynn,^[19] with whom he has a stepdaughter named Natalie. Moore is a Catholic,^[3][20] but has said he disagrees with church teaching on subjects such as abortion^[21] and same-sex marriage.^[22]

Following the Columbine High School massacre, Moore acquired a life membership to the National Rifle Association (NRA). Moore said that he initially intended to become the NRA's president and dismantle it, but he soon dismissed the plan as too difficult.^[23][24] Observers such as Dave Kopel noted that there was no chance of that happening;^[25] authors David T. Hardy and Jason Clarke wrote about how Moore failed to discover that the NRA selects a president not by membership vote but by a vote of the board of directors.^[26]

In 2005 Time magazine named Moore one of the world's 100 most influential people.^[27] Also in 2005, Moore started the annual Traverse City Film Festival in Traverse City, Michigan.

Career[link]

After dropping out of the University of Michigan–Flint following his freshman year (where he wrote for the student newspaper The Michigan Times), Moore worked at the local Buick plant.^[28] At 22 he founded the alternative weekly magazine The Flint Voice, which soon changed its name to The Michigan Voice as it expanded to cover the entire state. In 1986, when Moore became the editor of Mother Jones, a liberal political magazine, he moved to California and The Michigan Voice was shut down.

Moore at the 66th Venice International Film Festival in 2009

After four months at Mother Jones, Moore was fired. Matt Labash of The Weekly Standard reported this was for refusing to print an article by Paul Berman that was critical of the Sandinista human rights record in Nicaragua.^[29] Moore refused to run the article, believing it to be inaccurate. "The article was flatly wrong and the worst kind of patronizing bullshit. You would scarcely know from it that the United States had been at war with Nicaragua for the last five years."^[30] Moore believes that Mother Jones fired him because of the publisher's refusal to allow him to cover a story on the GM plant closings in his hometown of Flint, Michigan. He responded by putting laid-off GM worker Ben Hamper (who was also writing for the same magazine at the time) on the magazine's cover, leading to his termination. Moore sued for wrongful dismissal, and settled out of court for $58,000, providing him with seed money for his first film, Roger & Me.^[31]

Directing/producing[link]

Roger & Me

Moore first became famous for his 1989 film, Roger & Me, a documentary about what happened to Flint, Michigan, after General Motors closed its factories and opened new ones in Mexico, where the workers were paid much less. Since then Moore has been known as a critic of the neoliberal view of globalization. "Roger" is Roger B. Smith, former CEO and president of General Motors. Harlan Jacobson, editor of Film Comment magazine, said that Moore muddled the chronology in Roger & Me to make it seem that events that took place before G.M.’s layoffs were a consequence of them. Critic Roger Ebert defended Moore's handling of the timeline as an artistic and stylistic choice that had less to do with his credibility as a filmmaker and more to do with the flexibility of film as a medium to express a satiric viewpoint.^[32]

Pets or Meat: The Return to Flint

(1992) is a short (23-minute) documentary film that was aired on PBS. It is based on the feature-length film Roger & Me (1989) by Michael Moore. The film's title refers to Rhonda Britton, a Flint, Michigan, resident featured in both the 1989 and 1992 films who sells rabbits as either pets or meat.^[33]

Canadian Bacon

In 1995, Moore released a satirical film, Canadian Bacon, which features a fictional US president (played by Alan Alda) engineering a fake war with Canada in order to boost his popularity. It is noted for containing a number of Canadian and American stereotypes, and for being Moore's only non-documentary film. The film is also one of the last featuring Canadian-born actor John Candy, and also features a number of cameos by other Canadian actors. In the film, several potential enemies for America's next great campaign are discussed by the president and his cabinet. (The scene was strongly influenced by the Stanley Kubrick film Dr. Strangelove.) The President comments that declaring war on Canada was as ridiculous as declaring war on international terrorism. His military adviser, played by Rip Torn, quickly rebuffs this idea, saying that no one would care about "... a bunch of guys driving around blowing up rent-a-cars."

The Big One

In 1997, Moore directed The Big One, which documents the tour publicizing his book Downsize This! Random Threats from an Unarmed American, in which he criticizes mass layoffs despite record corporate profits. Among others, he targets Nike for outsourcing shoe production to Indonesia.

Bowling for Columbine

Moore's 2002 film, Bowling for Columbine, probes the culture of guns and violence in the United States, taking as a starting point the Columbine High School massacre of 1999. Bowling for Columbine won the Anniversary Prize at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival^[34] and France's César Award as the Best Foreign Film. In the United States, it won the 2002 Academy Award for Documentary Feature. It also enjoyed great commercial and critical success for a film of its type and became, at the time, the highest-grossing mainstream-released documentary (a record now held by Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11).^[5] It was praised by some for illuminating a subject avoided by the mainstream media.

Fahrenheit 9/11

Fahrenheit 9/11 examines America in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, particularly the record of the Bush administration and alleged links between the families of George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden. Fahrenheit was awarded the Palme d'Or,^[35] the top honor at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival; it was the first documentary film to win the prize since 1956. Moore later announced that Fahrenheit 9/11 would not be in consideration for the 2005 Academy Award for Documentary Feature, but instead for the Academy Award for Best Picture. He stated he wanted the movie to be seen by a few million more people via a television broadcast prior to election day. According to Moore, "Academy rules forbid the airing of a documentary on television within nine months of its theatrical release", and since the November 2 election was fewer than nine months after the film's release, it would have been disqualified for the Documentary Oscar.^[36] However, Fahrenheit received no Oscar nomination for Best Picture. The title of the film alludes to the classic book Fahrenheit 451 about a future totalitarian state in which books are banned; according to the book, paper begins to burn at 451 degrees Fahrenheit. The pre-release subtitle of the film confirms the allusion: "The temperature at which freedom burns." At the box office, as of 2010 Fahrenheit 9/11 is the highest-grossing documentary of all time, taking in over US$200 million worldwide, including United States box office revenue of almost US$120 million.^[5] In February 2011, Moore sued producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein for US$2.7 million in unpaid profits from the film, claiming they used "Hollywood accounting tricks" to avoid paying him the money.^[37]

Michael Moore at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival receiving a standing ovation for Sicko

Sicko

Moore directed this film about the American health care system, focusing particularly on the managed-care and pharmaceutical industries. At least four major pharmaceutical companies — Pfizer, Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, and GlaxoSmithKline — ordered their employees not to grant any interviews to Moore.^[38][39][40] According to Moore on a letter at his website, "roads that often surprise us and lead us to new ideas—and challenge us to reconsider the ones we began with have caused some minor delays." The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 19, 2007, receiving a lengthy standing ovation, and was released in the U.S. and Canada on June 29, 2007.^[41] The film was the subject of some controversy when it became known that Moore went to Cuba with chronically ill September 11th rescue workers to shoot parts of the film. The United States is looking into whether this violates the trade embargo. The film is currently ranked the fourth highest grossing documentary of all time^[5] and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature.^[42]

Captain Mike Across America

Moore takes a look at the politics of college students in what he calls "Bush Administration America" with this film shot during Moore's 60-city college campus tour in the months leading up to the 2004 election.^[43][44] The film was later re-edited by Moore into Slacker Uprising.

Capitalism: A Love Story

On September 23, 2009, Moore released a new movie titled Capitalism: A Love Story, which looks at the late-2000s financial crisis and the U.S. economy during the transition between the incoming Obama Administration and the outgoing Bush Administration. Addressing a press conference at its release, Moore said, "Democracy is not a spectator sport, it's a participatory event. If we don't participate in it, it ceases to be a democracy. So Obama will rise or fall based not so much on what he does but on what we do to support him."^[45]

Writing[link]

Moore has written or co-written eight non-fiction books, mostly on similar subject matter to his documentaries. Stupid White Men (2001) is ostensibly a critique of American domestic and foreign policy but, by Moore's own admission, is also "a book of political humor."^[46] Dude, Where's My Country? (2003), is an examination of the Bush family's relationships with Saudi royalty, the Bin Laden family, and the energy industry, and a call-to-action for liberals in the 2004 election. Several of his works have made bestseller lists.

Acting[link]

Moore has dabbled in acting, following a 2000 supporting role in Lucky Numbers as the cousin of Lisa Kudrow's character, who agrees to be part of the scheme concocted by John Travolta's character. He also had a cameo in his Canadian Bacon as an anti-Canada activist. In 2004, he did a cameo, as a news journalist, in The Fever, starring Vanessa Redgrave in the lead.

Television[link]

Between 1994 and 1995, he directed and hosted the BBC television series TV Nation, which followed the format of news magazine shows but covered topics they avoid. The series aired on BBC2 in the UK. The series was also aired in the US on NBC in 1994 for 9 episodes and again for 8 episodes on Fox in 1995.

His other major series was The Awful Truth, which satirized actions by big corporations and politicians. It aired on Channel 4 in the UK, and the Bravo network in the US, in 1999 and 2000. Moore won the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award in Arts and Entertainment for being the executive producer and host of The Awful Truth, where he was also described as "muckraker, author and documentary filmmaker".

Another 1999 series, Michael Moore Live, was aired in the UK only on Channel 4, though it was broadcast from New York. This show had a similar format to The Awful Truth, but also incorporated phone-ins and a live stunt each week.

Music videos[link]

Moore has directed several music videos, including two for Rage Against the Machine for songs from The Battle of Los Angeles: "Sleep Now in the Fire" and "Testify". He was threatened with arrest during the shooting of "Sleep Now in the Fire", which was filmed on Wall Street; the city of New York had denied the band permission to play there, although the band and Moore had secured a federal permit to perform.^[47]

He also directed the videos for R.E.M. single "All the Way to Reno (You're Gonna Be a Star)" in 2001 and the System of a Down song "Boom!".

Appearances in other documentaries[link]

• Moore appeared in The Drugging of Our Children,^[48] a 2005 documentary about over-prescription of psychiatric medication to children and teenagers, directed by Gary Null a proponent of Alternative Medicine. In the film Moore agrees with Gary Null that Ritalin and other similar drugs are over-prescribed, saying that they are seen as a "pacifier".
• Moore appeared on fellow Flint natives Grand Funk Railroad's edition of Behind The Music.
• Moore appeared as an off-camera interviewer in Blood in the Face, a 1991 documentary about white supremacy groups. At the center of the film is a neo-Nazi gathering in Michigan.^[49]
• Moore appeared in The Yes Men, a 2003 documentary about two men who pose as the World Trade Organization. He appears during a segment concerning working conditions in Mexico and Latin America.
• Moore briefly appears in Alex Jones's documentary Martial Law 9/11: Rise of the Police State. Jones criticises Moore for not going into more depth about the World Trade Center attacks in Fahrenheit 9/11, particularly about NORAD standing down, and for portraying George W. Bush as an unassuming frontman instead of an active conspirator in 9/11. Jones manages to ask Moore why he didn't mention NORAD standing down, and Moore swiftly answers that "it would be un-American".
• Moore was interviewed for the 2004 documentary, The Corporation. One of his highlighted quotes was: "The problem is the profit motive: for corporations, there's no such thing as 'enough'".^[50]
• Moore appeared in the 2006 documentary I'm Going to Tell You a Secret, which chronicles Madonna's 2004 Re-Invention World Tour. Moore attended her show in New York City at Madison Square Garden.

Political views[link]

Moore lampoons George W. Bush's reaction to the September 11 attacks notification

Although Moore has been noted for his liberal political activism,^[4] he rejects the label "political activist" saying such a description is redundant as a citizen of a democracy: "I and you and everyone else has to be a political activist. If we're not politically active, it ceases to be a democracy."^[51] According to John Flesher of the Associated Press, Moore is known for his "fiery left-wing populism,"^[52] and publications such as the Socialist Worker Online have hailed him as the "new Tom Paine."^[53]

Moore was a high-profile guest at both the 2004 Democratic National Convention and the 2004 Republican National Convention, chronicling his impressions in USA Today. He was criticized in a speech by Republican Senator John McCain as "a disingenuous film-maker." Moore laughed and waved as Republican attendees jeered, later chanting "four more years." Moore gestured his thumb and finger at the crowd, which translates into "loser."^[54]

During September and October 2004, Moore spoke at universities and colleges in swing states during his "Slacker Uprising Tour". The tour gave away ramen and underwear to students who promised to vote.^[55][56] One stop during the tour was Utah Valley State College. A fight for his right to speak resulted in massive public debates and a media blitz.^[57] The Utah event was chronicled in the documentary film This Divided State.^[58]

Despite having supported Ralph Nader in the 2000 presidential election, Moore urged Nader not to run in 2004 so as not to split the left vote. On Real Time with Bill Maher, Moore and Maher knelt before Nader to plead with him to stay out of the race.^[59]

Moore drew attention in 2004 when he used the term "deserter" when he introduced Retired Army Gen. Wesley K. Clark at a Democratic Presidential debate in New Hampshire. Noting that Clark had been a champion debater at West Point, Moore told a laughing crowd, "I know what you're thinking. I want to see that debate" between Clark and [George W.] Bush -- "the general versus the deserter." Moore said he was referring to published reports in several media outlets including The Boston Globe which had reported that "there is strong evidence that Bush performed no military service as required when he moved from Houston to Alabama to work on a U.S. Senate campaign from May to November 1972."^{[60] [61][62]}

On April 21, 2008, Moore endorsed Barack Obama for President, stating that Hillary Clinton's recent actions had been "disgusting."^[63] Moore is an active supporter of the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York City and spoke with the OWS protesters on September 26, 2011.^[64] On October 29, 2011, he spoke at the Occupy Oakland protest site to express his support. ^[65]

Published work[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Moore, Michael (1996). Downsize This! Random Threats from an Unarmed American. New York: HarperPerennial. ISBN 0-06-097733-7. 
• Moore, Michael; Glynn, Kathleen (1998). Adventures In A TV Nation. New York: HarperPerennial. ISBN 0-06-098809-6. 
• Moore, Michael (2002). Stupid White Men ...and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation!. New York: Regan Books. ISBN 0-06-039245-2. 
• Moore, Michael (2003). Dude, Where's My Country?. New York: Warner Books. ISBN 0-446-53223-1. 
• Moore, Michael (2004). Will They Ever Trust Us Again?. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-7152-1. 
• Moore, Michael (2004). The Official Fahrenheit 9/11 Reader. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-7292-7. 
• Moore, Michael (2008). Mike's Election Guide 2008. New York: Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 0-446-54627-5. 
• Moore, Michael (2011). Here Comes Trouble: Stories from My Life. New York: Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 0-446-53224-X. 

Filmography[link]

• Roger & Me (1989)
• Pets or Meat: The Return to Flint (1992) (TV)
• Canadian Bacon (1995)
• The Big One (1997)
• And Justice for All (1998) (TV)
• EDtv (1999) (cameo as himself)
• Lucky Numbers (2000) (as actor)
• Bowling for Columbine (2002)
• Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)
• Sicko (2007)
• Captain Mike Across America (2007)
• Slacker Uprising (2008)
• Capitalism: A Love Story (2009)

Television series[link]

• TV Nation (1994)
• The Awful Truth (1999)
• Michael Moore Live (1999)

References[link]

External links[link]

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (December 2010)

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Michael Moore

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Michael Moore

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Michael Moore

• Michael Moore at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by or about Michael Moore in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• The Populist: Michael Moore Can Make You Cry / New Yorker (16 February 2004)
• America's Teacher by Naomi Klein, The Nation, September 23, 2009
• A 2007 NOW on PBS interview with Michael Moore
• Michael Moore on His Life, His Films and His Activism - video interview by Democracy Now!
• Michael Moore on 2010 Midterm Elections, the Tea Party, and the Future of the Democratic Party
• In Depth interview with Moore, October 2, 2011