Sunday, December 09, 2007

Gee, Ya Think?

I've never cared much for the work of documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock. His Super Size Me was mildly amusing, but based on a fatally ridiculous central premise. (You're not supposed to eat Mickey D's three times a day every day, ya doofus.) So when rumors started making the rounds that Spurlock actually located Osama bin Laden while making his latest film, those of us who are not complete rubes immediately thought "publicity stunt" and put it out of our minds. When right wing blogger Debbie Schlussel titled one of her recent screeds " I Don't Believe Morgan Spurlock Found Bin Laden," my immediate reaction was "yeah, no shit, Debbie."

Schlussel is one of those hysterics who can work herself into a mouth-foaming frenzy at the drop of a hat, running around with their hair on fire and the spittle flying, shrieking about "jihadists" and "islamofascists" hiding around every corner and under every bed. She and bloggers like her are the perfect terrorist tools, because they live in exactly the state of mind the terrorists want us in: a state of constant paranoia, jumping at every sudden noise and spreading their fear far and wide. She's also the perfect patsy for a publicity seeking con man like Spurlock. Her outraged reaction is just what he was looking for.

Congratulations, Debbie. You've been played like a cheap violin and you don't even know it.

1 comment:

Steve Allan said...

Spurlock's career has been a set of gimmicky premises - 30 DAYS is basically WIFE SWAP with a supposedly social commentary.

I seriously doubt that Spurlock was able to find bin Laden. As flawed as our intelligent community is, and that's usually the fault of the upper bureacracy and political appointees (usually the same people), the on-the-ground agents are extremely good at their jobs. Take Valerie Plame for example - a woman who is incredibly knowledgeable about nuclear proliferation in the middle east, but largely ignored, and ultimately screwed, by our current administration. These are the same people who wrote that confusingly vague and subtle memo: Bin Laden Determined to Strike Inside the US. I seriously doubt Spurlock is more resourceful than our intelligent people. This is definitely publicity frenzy, probably started by Harvey Weinstein, the distributor of the film, who has a tendency to publiize his movies with incredible venom.