- Bush-bashing filmmaker Michael Moore is denying he ever
owned stock in Halliburton Energy Services Company, the oil equipment giant
once run by Vice President Dick Cheney that has become anathma to left-wingers.
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- Speaking last week at the first annual Paul Wellstone
Memorial Dinner in Washington, D.C., Moore claimed that the Halliburton
allegation in Peter Schweizer's blockbuster new book "Do As I Say,
[Not As I Do]," is "crazy."
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- "Michael Moore own Halliburton stock?" the
anti-corporate lefty asked the crowd. "See, that's like a great comedy
line. I know it's not true - I mean, I've never owned a share of stock
in my life."
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- Moore protested: "Anybody who knows me knows that,
you know - who's gonna believe that? Just crazy people are going to believe
it - crazy people who tune-in to the Fox News Channel."
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- And maybe crazy people who can read with their own eyes
the tax return for Mr. Moore's very own foundation - as reprinted in Schweizer's
book.
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- The bestselling author reports:
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- "Publicly, Moore claims that he doesn't invest
in the stock market out of moral principle. Privately, he tells the IRS
something completely different."
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- Schweizer explains how the widely acclaimed anti-corporatist
set up a private foundation after his first major film, "Roger &
Me," started making serious money.
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- In 1999, "the year Moore claimed in 'Stupid White
Men' that he didn't own any stock, he reported to the IRS that his foundation
had more than $280,000 in corporate stock and close to $100,000 in corporate
bonds."
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- "And in perhaps the ultimate irony," notes
Schweizer, "he also has owned shares in Halliburton. According to
IRS filings, Moore sold Halliburton for a 15 percent profit and bought
shares in Noble, Ford, General Electric" and other allegedly evil
corporations.
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- Moore is currently working on a documentary attacking
big pharmaceuticals.
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- But Schweizer discovered that Moore's foundation holdings
have "included such evil pharmaceutical and medical companies as Pfizer,
Merck, Genzyme, Elan PLC, Eli Lilly, Becton Dickinson and Boston Scientific."
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- Schweizer continues:
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- "Moore's supposedly nonexistent portfolio also
includes big bad energy giants like Sunoco, Noble Energy, Schlumberger,
Williams Companies, Transocean Sedco Forex and Anadarko, all firms that
'deplete irreplaceable fossil fuels in the name of profit' as he put it
in 'Dude, Where's My Country?'
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- "Also on Moore's investment menu: defense contractors
Honeywell, Boeing and Loral."
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- Does Moore share the stock proceeds of his "foundation"
with charitable causes, you might ask?
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- Schweizer found that "for a man who by 2002 had
a net worth in eight figures, he gave away a modest $36,000 through the
foundation, much of it to his friends in the film business or tony cultural
organizations that later provided him with venues to promote his books
and film."
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- Moore's hypocrisy doesn't end with his financial holdings.
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- He has criticized the journalism industry and Hollywood
for their lack of African-Americans in prominent positions, and in 1998
he said he personally wanted to hire minorities "who come from the
working class."
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- In "Stupid White Men," he proclaimed his plans
to "hire only black people."
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- But when Schweizer checked the senior credits for Moore's
latest film "Fahrenheit 911," he found that of the movie's 14
producers, three editors, production manager and production coordinator,
all 19 were white. So were all three cameramen and the two people who did
the original music.
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- On "Bowling for Columbine," 13 of the 14 producers
were white, as were the two executives in charge of production, the cameramen,
the film editor and the music composer.
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- His show "TV Nation" had 13 producers, four
film editors and 10 writers but not a single African-American among
them.
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- And as for Moore's insistence on portraying himself
as "working class" and an "average Joe," Schweizer
recounts this anecdote:
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- "When Moore flew to London to visit people at the
BBC or promote a film, he took the Concorde and stayed at the Ritz. But
he also allegedly booked a room at a cheap hotel down the street where
he could meet with journalists and pose as a 'man of humble circumstances.'"
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- Michael Moore, that's not "crazy" -- that's
hypocrisy with a capital H!
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