September 16, 2005
The Audio Edition - Special "This Divided State" Edition
Greetings folks. This one is a special installment of The Audio Edition where Doug and I take a look at the new documentary The Divided State. Here is the official synopsis of the film:
This Divided State is a raw and riveting examination of the heated "red versus blue" rift in the nation, This Divided State begins in September 2004 with the presidential election fast approaching and the State of Utah ready to declare itself "Bush Country" once again. However, this complacent state of Republican majority was rocked when Utah Valley State College announced that liberal filmmaker Michael Moore would speak on their campus two weeks before the election. Within 24 hours of the announcement, a media frenzy descended upon the school as angry community members and religious leaders shouted protests, pointed fingers, and quoted Mormon scripture. Some even claimed Moore's arrival would bring the Apocalypse.
The student body representatives who had invited Michael Moore soon were inundated with hate mail, death threats, and claims that they had committed "treason." An effort to Other students who supported Moore?s right to speak were labeled "liberal," "anti-Mormon," or just simply "evil." Spearheading the anti-Moore campaign was Kay Anderson, local millionaire, Sunday School teacher and self-appointed community spokesperson. Mr. Anderson made local headlines when he attempted to bribe the college administration, during a public forum, with a personal $25,000 check in order to cancel Michael Moore's speech.
Attempting to calm outrage, the college invited FOX News pundit Sean Hannity to speak a few days before Moore. But this was to no avail. The controversy continued to explode into a full-blown war of political and religious differences and, within days, lawsuits were filed, resignations occurred, and friendships were torn apart.
And thus continued the infamous "Moore War." Would conservative activists prevent Michael Moore from speaking? Would liberal Utahns win their fight for freedom of speech? The answer lies somewhere within "This Divided State."Let me be very clear about this: "This Divided State" is NOT about Michael Moore. It's not about Republicans or Democrats. It's not about Left or Right. This is a film about how quickly we as human beings throw away the freedom of speech when we don't like what someone else is saying.
This is not one of the best documentaries I've seen in my entire life... but it may be one of the most important.
To listen to Doug and I talk about This Divided State just click here.
SHOW NOTES:
- Running time: 22:28
- File Size: 5.3 megs
- Official This Divided State website
- Utah Valley State College
- Official Mormon website
- Official Michael Moore website
Posted by John Campea at September 16, 2005 12:20 AM
Comments
Posted by: dRob at September 16, 2005 03:39 AM
Once again, very nice audio editions with great topic. And foremost, it was very refreshing. I haven't even heard about this documentary before or about it's topic but now I became pretty interested. Both of you guys made couple of great points and I would like to see more of these. These audio editions that circle around one movie (or subject) has always been my favorites (Sin City, Episode III, Batman Begins). Multitopics are nice too but sometimes it feels that you have move too fast to cover up all the topics. When you got one topic, let say particular movie, you get 20-30min to talk about it and man, those conversations rocks.
Keep doing great job!
Posted by: Jorse at September 16, 2005 08:26 AM
Great cast - still not picking them up with iTunes though.
Posted by: Lou Sytsma at September 16, 2005 10:03 AM
2 audio editions in one day. I could get used to this :D