Michael Moore Blames Media for Trump Presidency and 'Dumbed Down' America

Michael Moore has a bone to pick with the media. The documentary filmmaker placed blame on the media Saturday for helping to create a "dumbed-down" America and bring about a Donald Trump presidency.

The 64-year-old director presented his latest feature, Fahrenheit 11/9, at the Rome Film Festival on Saturday, and talked about the role media played in shifting the United States, prioritizing entertaining the general public above sharing necessary facts.

"If you allow rich corporations to buy up and control most of the media and then put things on the media that are intended to appeal to the stupidity that's in all of us, you will have a dumbed down nation," Moore said, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Moore explained how the closings of schools and libraries nationwide led to the possibility of Trump being able to step foot into the Oval Office, saying, "The more you dumb [America] down, the more likely you are to end up with a Donald Trump."

Michael Moore Blames Media
Michael Moore attends the premiere of his new film, "Fahrenheit 11/9," at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California, on September 19. Rich Fury/Getty Images

"The dumb act that [Trump] puts on, a lot of that is a pretend thing that he's doing," Moore continued. "I think that once the nation is already dumbed down, it's easy for him to play the dumb act, and it's entertaining."

Moore's Fahrenheit 11/9 takes an in-depth exploration into Trump's presidency, shedding light on gun-related violence and the significance of the grassroots democratic movement. The use of "11/9" in the documentary's title is a play on Moore's previous film, Fahrenheit 9/11. The 2004 political documentary examined George W. Bush's administration's role in utilizing the media to push for war in Afghanistan and Iraq following the September 11 attacks.

Moore also spoke with Entertainment Weekly in an interview published October 2 about the Democratic Party's part in contributing to Trump's success during the 2016 presidential election.

"I didn't realize just how insidious the infrastructure and the power is, and how the old-school and old-guard politics and politicians of the Democratic party are probably our No. 1 obstacle to getting our country back in our hands, the way it should be," Moore told EW. "It's painful to say that, but I do not shy away from it, because you have to remove that which is standing in the way of progress, standing in the way of justice."

Moore continued, "[Democrats] do not want Republicans running the country, and yet they run everything—the White House, the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court...They have done nothing but made sure the Republicans win time after time, and in large part by running the wrong candidates but also not pursuing the things that the American people want."

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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

About the writer


Dory Jackson is a New York-based entertainment journalist from Maryland. She graduated from Randolph-Macon College—in May 2016—with a focus in Communication ... Read more

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