jumping all over an aside

Howie Kurtz:

Never mind that most Americans don't know who Card is. (In fact, he may be most famous for that scene from the Michael Moore movie; television kept replaying the footage of Card interrupting Bush's reading of "My Pet Goat" to tell him about the 9/11 attacks.)

"That scene from the Michael Moore movie."

One could also call that documentary footage of an actual event. But I guess "scene from a Michael Moore movie" is technically accurate. Moore did in fact take that documentary footage and use it in his film.

"Scene from a movie." As a choice of words, it puts a little distance to the event, doesn't it? The video shows the real time reaction of Bubble Boy, panicked into inaction, frozen with the realization that his job matters and that all he knows is the politics of back-slaps and rat-fucks. But "scene from a movie," that indicates something a bit unreal. It's only a movie, you see.

Moore featured that event in his movie because he felt that the public was not aware of it. So, we wouldn't even associate this documented event with Moore's movie if it had been shown in its entirity, discussed, evaluated, talked out until we all said, "enough already." We associate it with his movie because none of those things happened.

And there is another level of distancing happening here. Michael Moore's name has become code word among the wingnuts; a code word for what, I don't know. Just - a code word. Leftist. Pinko. America hater. FAT! (TM, The Editors) Take your pick.

There are depths of unreality here that are disturbing. An actual recorded event becomes "a scene from a movie."

If you see a hookah smoking character around, tell him to get a damn job.