Michael Moore's Veracity

Mr. Davis:

Following the link on Andrew Sullivan's web site. I read with interest your comments on 'Bowling for Columbine.' It's important to note that SpinSanity and others have made errors regarding whether the rockets made at the Lockheed facility outside Denver were weapons or not.

When I was a student trainee in the mid-70's, working at the (then) Martin Marietta Aerospace CCMS facility in Denver (a satellite of the main facility in Littleton), it was a point of company pride that the Titan family of rockets was built in Littleton, Colorado. Titan missiles were the delivery vehicles for a large number of civilian and defense-oriented satellites, plus 54 nuclear-bomb-tipped missiles, based in silos in North Dakota, Missouri, and outside Tucson, Arizona. These liquid-fueled missiles were inherently dangerous, and thus were the first to be decommissioned (I think in 1986). But these missiles WERE built in Littleton, Colorado, same as the other Titan vehicles.

In 'Bowling for Columbine,' Michael Moore tried to illustrate the culture in which the young Columbine assailants had been raised, where everyone was in thrall to the defense contractor, and thus to the culture of war, whether people liked to discuss it or not. The assailants were born prior to 1986: certainly, their parents were. Whether one grants Michael Moore his tenuous claim of a link between the war culture and Columbine or not, it's important to acknowledge Moore did NOT commit major errors of fact here. Rather SpinSanity (and many others) have repeatedly erred in calling Moore to account on facts that tilt in his favor.

(I had an interesting E-Mail discussion with Mr. Davis regarding Michael Moore. Mr. Davis feels that it is a waste of time defending Michael Moore. I still feel it is an error to underestimate Michael Moore, or the impact filmmaking can have on propaganda).