I know I said I would only defend Moore against the allegations of lies relating to his movie and what it says only. But this lie about Hezbollah endorsing the movie and/or offering its support to distribute it is the biggest nonsense and completely unsubstantiated. Here is how FFact puts it:
Did you know that "Fahrenheit 9/11" is in part funded by terrorists? That's right. In the mideast, Hezbollah has offered to help distribute the film in the mideast and Moore has tacitly accepted.
These allegations have been thrown around so widely and irresponsibly that it unfortunately has become a fact to so many. But when you read the only articles that claim to prove this, they are nothing more than sheer speculation and heresy. Take the first article by The Guardian and look closely at what it says about Hezbollah offering help to distribute the film:
Meanwhile, in the United Arab Emirates, the film is being offered the kind of support it doesn't need. According to Screen International, the UAE-based distributor Front Row Entertainment has been contacted by organisations related to the Hezbollah in Lebanon with offers of help.
How does a claim as vague as 'contacted by organizations related to the Hezbollah in Lebanon' become full blown support by the group for Moore and his movie? Once that distributor gets the rights to the film Moore has nothing to do with who supports or does not support them. I do not doubt that the group does in fact support the movie but this proves nothing and is certainly not an indictment of Moore.
Furthermore, other articles being run as proof of Hezbollah's offer come from the extremely right-wing WorldNetDaily (WND), a website notorious for running articles with shadowy and uncredible sources. This is proven by the website everyday when it uses WND founder and editor Joe Farah's mysterious "
G2 Bulletin" as a source for almost every article they run relating to the Middle East, especially those trying to stir up war fever towards Iran and Syria. The 'G2 bulletin' has no accountability and when readers wish to investigate the stories they run, they are told a yearly subscription charge of $200 is needed to read further. Pretty easy to run a big headline like "Chemical attack in Iraq" with no clear source.
But this certainly does not mean WND is lying in this particular case in its story FFact uses to show that Moore 'tacitly accepts the help.' However, when one reads the article, the closest it comes to indicting Moore is the claim by Front Row's (UAE based company that recieved the support from Hezbollah) Managing Director Gianluca Chacra: "We can't go against these organizations as they could strongly boycott the film in Lebanon and Syria." But again, how does this indict Moore? How is he responsible for what others wish to do with the movie once they have the rights to it? Even if the charges were true Moore has no authority to stop it even if he wished to do so.
Lastly, FFact supposedly verifies this claim even further when a reporter asked Moore what he thought of the connection and received the following response:
"Shockingly," Moore shined him on with some comment about some people believing there were Martians on Earth (or the equivalent). But Ledeen came armed with a follow-up, having phoned Moore's distributor who had already affirmed the rumor. Then the "courageous documentarian" simply stonewalled and changed the subject.
Moore has no reason to dignify the reporter's comments. Why give any credibility to the argument by answering the allegation? Even if Moore said 'I reject any help they may be offering,' that only proves his critics' point that the movie is getting support from Hezbollah when in fact Moore has nothing to do with it.
*Note* - FFact as of July 1st has taken back its accusation that terrorists are helping to distribute the film. While I do commend them for their honesty, many other are still pushing this lie so it needs to be addressed.