Morgan Spurlock's Tired Shtick
By Erick Posted in Culture — Comments (23) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Michelle Malkin links to this column at Opinion Journal written by Debbie Schlussel. Ms. Schlussel was asked to participate in a new show by Morgan Spurlock of "Super Size Me" fame -- the "documentary" applauded by the left for showing the evils of eatting at McDonalds every day while observing consumption rules no average person would observe.
Spurlock has a new show coming out called "30 Days", which is put together by the same folks who put together Michael Moore's "The Awful Truth with Michael Moore." The concept is to put someone in a situation for 30 days and watch how that person breaks down stereotypes, etc. The first one, of course, is designed to show the United States as intolerant toward muslims [Ed -- I'm hearing echos of Karl Rove on liberals]. Ms. Schlussel writes
I asked the show's executive producers--all of whom worked on "The Awful Truth With Michael Moore," a cable TV show--how this could be a documentary when they had decided the outcome in advance. Wasn't it possible that Mr. Stacy would come out seeing that there isn't Islamophobia to the extent that the Muslim community claims? Might he see that there is disturbingly strong support in the Detroit-area Islamic community for terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah--a fact regularly documented even in the normally pliant Detroit media?
No, the producers told me. "Morgan wants the show to demonstrate to America that we are Islamophobic and that 9/11's biggest victims are Muslims." With this in mind, I agreed to be filmed only with final approval of my appearance, which I never gave. Thus I will not appear in Wednesday's show.When I met David Stacy, about halfway through his 30-day experience, I was amazed at how uninformed he was. This new "expert" on Islam never heard of Wahhabism--the extremist Sunni strain of Islam that dominates Saudi Arabia and informs the terrorist-breeding madrassa schools throughout Arab and other Muslim lands. He was unfamiliar with groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. He did not believe me when I told him that Hezbollah had murdered hundreds of U.S. Marines and civilians in Beirut and elsewhere. He seemed mystified to learn that President Bush shut down American Islamic charities, like the Holy Land Foundation and Global Relief Foundation, for funding Hamas and al Qaeda.
Perhaps, however, the most humorous part was this:
When I told Mr. Spurlock's executive producer that I felt David Stacy was, well, a moron, she replied that Imam Husham Al-Husainy, a prominent Dearborn Shia cleric, "said the same thing" and refused to continue teaching him about Islam for the show. The biggest morons, though, will be not Mr. Stacy but the critics and viewers who fall for this supersized phony "documentary."
Be sure to read the whole thing here. And remember, Mr. Spurlock is a Michael Moore wanna be, which means he makes documentaries from a tired, liberal viewpoint with a predetermined outcome designed to prove himself right and ignoring all facts contrary to his views in order to accomplish that.
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Morgan Spurlock's Tired Shtick 23 Comments (0 topical, 23 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
documentary on Islam, than this triped up opinion piece being portrayed as a documentary.
When you start with a premise, then go looking for support for it, you are creating a fiction.
I never eat at MdDonalds, so I don't really have a stake in this. However, my favorite McD's story is from Chad Johnson, the 1200+ yd Cincinnati Bengals' wideout.
I think Morgan Spurlock was a vegatarian before Super Size me, or at least he was mostly one since in the show you learn that his girlfried is one. I was a vegatarian for ten years, and its been a few years since I stopped, but I still can't eat some meats without getting sick. Spurlock's idea that he could just jump from never eating meat to three times a day is absurd. Spurlock is also pretty sendentary. Even though he's skinny, from watching the show, you don't get the idea that he's in the best physical shape.
Chad Johnson, on the other hand, is used to eating meat and active. During training camp, he eats McDonalds three times a day, everyday. He says, "It's what feuls the 4.4 speed."
Nobody is saying that its the healthiest thing in the world, but it isn't nearly as poisonous as Spurlock would like everybody to believe.
There is this whole new genre of psudo-documentary/-news that is popping up. Those behind it make two contradictory claims: they are just entertainment so should get leeway with facts, but they are also to be take seriously.
When you call one these pseudo-reporters on not being truthful, they retort that they are comedy, and if you are looking at them for something beyond entertainment, then you are looking in the wrong place. However, they also claim to be educating the public since the mainstream media isn't doing its job very well.
It's a confusing position.
that is intended to provide a perspective then you need to, by design, start with a premise.
Here is the synopsis of the episode which is NOT the first epsiode, which Erick claims, but rather the 3rd episode....
The episode, according the web site's synopsis is about the MAIN CHARACTER's bias towards Islam and how it would be affected by immersing himself into a Muslim lifestyle.
Who has actually seen it except for some TV talk show host, who likely has her own agenda?
That the diet he was on was not good for him. The fact that he was eating about 5000 calories a day wasn't good either.
The movie brought up a lot of good points in general and was about more than just McDs. He brought up a bunch of statistical evidence about America's poor eating habits. He shows a guy who needed a gastric bypass and was diabetic because of his huge levels of sugar intake. He also showed a guy who eats 3 Big Macs a day, and has for 20 years, and is in perfect shape.
Just because Chad Johnson, a 20 something year old extraordinary athlete, east McDs doesn't really prove anything.
it should be-let's try doing X for thirty days, and see what happens.
The premise of the show is that in 30 days you should see what you learn. You may indeed learn that the US is this bigoted place where everyone hates muslims, you may learn that there are some really intolerant people out there, and some really tolerant ones, you may learn that there are some really intolerant mulsims in addition to really intolerant non muslims (get the point-the show is billed as a "let's try X and see what happens" show, but in reality isn't what it is billed as).
Verses the premise of this show is-I want to show the world what a bunch of bigoted people the US is, so I am going to live a muslim for 30 days to prove it. In this case, you will tend to see everything that supports your premise, and most likely disregard the things that don't support the premise.
So what you get is a lie billed as the truth.
First one about Muslims? I thought the first one was about living on minimum wage? It was on last week.
Spurlock and his girlfriend moved to Columbus, Ohio, and both get minimum wage jobs. It's not bad.
When watching it with some friends, almost all nonpolitical, they all laughed and picked it apart. If you are only getting paid minimum wage for landscaping, you much have had to actually bargain down your pay rate. Even the illegal immigrants get paid more than that for lanscaping around here a friend remarked who actually tried to start a landscaping company. (I don't know if it was hyperbole). And anybody who was ever worked in a labor intensive job or even just as a clerk knows that when you get injured as a result of work, workers comp covers it. Spurlock didn't seem to know or edited it out.
Spurlock can't even find a minimum wage job easily. They all want to pay him more.
It's very entertaining show. You'll laugh, but I wouldn't be worried enough about it to go writing editorials in the Journal about it.
It's very entertaining show. You'll laugh, but I wouldn't be worried enough about it to go writing editorials in the Journal about it.
Is the next biting editorial in the Journal going to rip apart The Shield or Resuce Me?
It's a ratings driven weekly program. Providing Frontline-like sobriety isn't going to attract viewers.
I missed the minimum wage ep but I watched the Anti-aging one. It was ok. More a show about the guy and his pretty domineering wife.
For a person who probably never heard of this show before this Op-Ed piece you sure know a lot about it.
Was there a talking point issued about it this morning that I missed?
Just because Chad Johnson, a 20 something year old extraordinary athlete, east McDs doesn't really prove anything.
That could also be reworded as "Just because some fat slob eats McDs doesn't really prove anything." It's all anecdotal and not necessarily informative.
He brought up a bunch of statistical evidence about America's poor eating habits. He shows a guy who needed a gastric bypass and was diabetic because of his huge levels of sugar intake.
Aggregate statistical evidence of American's eating habits isn't very useful. I wish I could find this study, but I deleted it after I read it -- the study used more than just averages. It shows that Americans were bifurcating into a group of healthy and a group of unhealthy with the middle between the two thinning out. The average wasn't very meaningful because of this. It supported something that's been known for a long time. When you go to a gym, look at the body composition of those around you. Most are already trim. Few are overweight. It is the vanity crowd going to lose those last few pounds or keep it off. We seem to actually have fewer overweight ppl than the average would indicate, but we have more obese ppl.
Besides, to gauge the abstract health of the population you want to focus on cardiovascular fitness. It is a much better indicator than weight. You would rather be cardiovascularly fit and obese than cardiovascularly unfit and normal. (I didn't believe this until somebody showed me the box diagram.)
they have advertised it quite a bit during NASCAR.
And they do bill it as a "30 days doing X, and see what you learn from it" type show.
I admit I haven't read the details of the show until reading this, but I do have the commercials the show has produced to promote it to go on in regards to an opinion.
Not too interested in watching it though-can't say that the whole reality show thing appeals to me. I would rather stick with Discovery, History, and TLC with CSI (the original) thrown in.
Also the more you make the more likely you are to be healthy from a fitness/cardiovascular standpoint. Also where you live plays a factor.
Regardless I think that Spurlock's main point was reasonable. The fast food industry has harmed Americans from a health perspective. Not willfully, IMO. But their objective is to make money and the best way to do this is to serve you food that your body finds appealing. Your body generally wants food that are NOT HEALTHY for you.
weight does not indicate health.
There are skinny people out there with poor health habits, and overweight (and those BMI's aren't very tolerant when it comes to definitions of obese) people with good health habits.
I personally don't think three burgers a day is good for anyone, but then I am one of those "red meat should be limited" and fried foods should be avoided as much as possible people. Moderation and portion control (which is probably the real issue with americans, not so much what we eat but how much) in eating is a very good way to go.
the Sheild and REscue Me are fiction and billed as fiction. If anyone thinks they are real, they have real problems.
30 days is billed as a reality show, you expect to see some truth in the show.
But I did remember now seeing a review for the minimum wage one, from what I understand at least one of them had to bargain their wages down, and I don't think they bargained them to minimum wage.
The Shield and Rescue Me are fiction. 30 Days is said to be a short documentary. My point was just the Spurlock's attempt at swaying opinions isn't going to be very successful, not that he isn't trying. It's transparent and too much fun to MST3K the thing.
30 Days only has a short run (6 or 8 episodes, I think). It's quality is good enough that I'm surprised that he couldn't get it on network TV.
I don't like his fiancee. She bugs. And that armband tattoo on her is hideous.
I didn't see the anti-aging ep (sounds lame), but I'm waiting for the Dearborn Muslim one.
and the gay/straight episodes seem the most interesting of the upcoming ones.
Spurlock was not a vegetarian before doing the 30-day Micky D's diet; he had a typical meat and veggies diet (if he had been a vegetarian, his bodily reactions would have been far worse than they already were). This is mentioned at the beginning of the film and at the end (after he goes through his girlfriend's vegan detox diet; God help him).
And his girlfriend is not vegetarian, she's a vegan chef.
I wonder how his girlfriend being a vegan chef affected his diet? I wonder how often Spurlock ate meat and what kind.
I'm kind of a food snob and also pay close attention to what I eat. (Sadly, I even keep a food diary for parts of the year.) I'm not really the kind to tell ppl to go eat at McDs three times a day or even week, but Spurlock's drastic problems just seem too exagerated.
The documentary reminded me of anti-drug propaganda in the way it pushes its claims far past reasonable and beyond experience. I've just never known of anybody to become so deathly ill from fast food, even the amount that Spurlock ate.
(And "vegan detox diet" ewww. This only adds to my belief that those who think vegan diets are more healthy don't understand how our bodies work.)
Are you telling that Spurlock's show which is a weekly reality type show on FX is NOT A DOCUMENTARY?
I'm shocked! No, I'm awed!
Super Size Me was hilarious, which was it's main point. Did you see it?
Haven't watched this episode but I was underwhelmed with the episode they had on anti-aging drugs.
It's NOT an investigative show. It's an entertainment show.
You know who the real idiots are? The people who expect this show to be a Frontline like show. It may be amusing to watch but to suggest that the show is educational is akin to saying that American Idol is an example of how musicians become successful.