Here's NPR's Scott Simon talking about Michael Moore in the Wall Street Journal (thanks to Jill for the link).

Back in 1991 that sharpest of film critics, the New Yorker's Pauline Kael, blunted some of the raves for Mr. Moore's "Roger and Me" by pointing out how the film misrepresented many facts about plant closings in Flint, Mich., and caricatured people it purported to feel for. "The film I saw was shallow and facetious," said Kael, "a piece of gonzo demagoguery that made me feel cheap for laughing."

Gonzo demagoguery. Yep...that just about sums up Moore's style.

On the Saudi flight non-controversy:

But on our show on Saturday, Richard Clarke, the government's former counter-terrorism adviser and no apologist for the Bush administration, told us that he had authorized those flights, but only after air travel had been restored and all the Saudis had been questioned. "I think Moore's making a mountain of a molehill," he said. Moreover, said Mr. Clarke, "He never interviewed me." Instead, Mr. Moore had simply lifted a clip from an ABC interview. Perhaps Mr. Moore just didn't want to get an answer that he didn't want to hear. (See how useful innuendoes can be?)

Moore's a hack. But apparently such a skillful hack that he's been able to secure an Oscar, a Palme D'Orr, a box seat at the DNC, and an appearance with Jimmy Carter.

There's a pathetic desperation in the Left clinging to the cheap diatribes of someone like Moore. Ironically, I'm feeling less dour about the prospect of a Kerry/Edwards Administration (I'm still not going to vote for them, but I wouldn't rend my clothes and scream to the skies if Kerry were elected).

But even though they're not putting him on the stage, embracing a conspiratorial hack like Moore doesn't win them any place in my heart, and more than likely does more to hurt their cause rather than help it.