Pohadka: Blog -- And It Will Not Be Televised

BUZZFLASH: Now specifically, a little bit about your book [Stupid White Men]. You've written in your columns that after September 11th, your publisher was going to deep-six the book unless you took out critical comments on Bush. You held firm. Is it true that the librarians of America came to your defense and saved the day?

MICHAEL MOORE: That's what it looks like. I mean, I didn't know who any of these people were. They -- this one librarian found out about it, and she got in a, I don't know, library chat room. Or she sent a letter out to a list of librarians, and they sent it out to a bunch of people, and the thing kind of mushroomed from there. So, I'd say it's a combination of these librarians and the Internet, because they started sending letters to Harper-Collins, and Harper-Collins saw that it wasn't gonna be a good thing to ban the book. But I'm really happy about it. I really didn't realize the librarians were, you know, such a dangerous group.

MICHAEL MOORE: They are subversive. You think they're just sitting there at the desk, all quiet and everything. They're like plotting the revolution, man.

Comments

I had a librarian confess her love of Strunk & White to me yesterday. Not terribly revolutionary, but very cute, in that sensible older librarian sort of way. I think I have a crush on her.

Says tODD
21 Mar 2002 at 01:24 PM

Not to downplay the coolness of what the librarians did for Michael Moore, but they're fighting for much more important stuff right now. The ALA has been filing amicus curiae briefs in support of many landmark copyright and privacy cases including Eldred vs. Ashcroft (http://www.ala.org/washoff/copyrightataglance.html), as well as vigorously fighting for First and Fourth Amendment privileges in challenges to the PATRIOT act, UCITA, DMCA, and SSSCA. Individual librarians are risking their jobs and even jail to get fair wages, block censorship, and challenge subpoenas that seek to use reading as evidence of intent to commit a crime. For those who don't want information about their private reading habits turned over to the police as evidence; who want to be able to sell or lend books and CDs and DVDs; who want to be able to copy parts of books and articles and recordings for personal or teaching use; and who do not want American culture to be completely owned by large corporations -- librarians are your best friends. In this light, don't Moore's comments sound just a teensy bit clueless?

Says Troutgirl
24 Mar 2002 at 05:27 PM

Not clueless. I think he means they're a dangerous, subversive group in the best possible way -- this is Michael Moore, liberal gadfly, after all.

Fighting against the censorship of just one book is a small but important piece of a much larger picture. I think his comment that they're "plotting the revolution," while perhaps over- or wrongly stated, calls attention to the fact that every day, libraries and librarians are the battleground for dozens of important standoffs that the major media usually doesn't cover.

I'm glad Moore's book got published, just like I'm glad that Huck Finn and Ulysses are still on many library shelves and the CIMA is being fought in court today.

Says Xy
26 Mar 2002 at 08:53 AM

To quote my collegues, "SHHHHHH" Michael! How could you reveal our secrets? We'll never win if people catch on to our silently fought battles! I can get more done on my causes if I hide behind my bun and granny-glasses shield :)

Says Library Lady
22 Oct 2002 at 10:37 AM