The Michael Moore Effect

With all of the attention focused on the fierce competition between Hillary and Obama over the democratic nomination, seemingly little attention has been paid to John McCain in recent media cycles. I read, however, an interesting article today that talks about a new documentary being published about the Jack Abramoff scandal, including John McCain’s role in the matter. The film will be done by recent academy award winner Alex Gibney. While it is unclear the level of implication related to McCain, it will be interesting to see if this could play a role in the primary elections. Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 was certainly welcomed by some liberals. That being said, it also quickly raised questions about the journalistic integrity of the documentary and seemed to mobilize and equally strong anti-Michael Moore conservative force (e.x. when he spoke at the USC campus before the 2004 election or the Fahrehhype 9/11 production). It’s probably too early to tell but it’s interesting to see if these sort of media productions could play an important role in the election, and how each side will respond