Jul. 3, 2004 | Associated Press
DECORAH, Iowa – The president of a company that owns movie theaters in Iowa and Nebraska is refusing to show director Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11.”
R.L. Fridley, owner of Des Moines-based Fridley Theatres, says the controversial documentary incites terrorism.
Fridley said in an e-mail message to company managers that the company does not “play political propaganda films from either the right or the left.”
“Our country is in a war against an enemy who would destroy our way of life, our culture and kill our people,” Fridley wrote. “These barbarians have shown through (the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001) and the recent beheadings that they will stop at nothing. I believe this film emboldens them and divides our country even more.”
“Fahrenheit 9/11” won best picture at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and has grossed millions of dollars at the box office. Moore won an Academy Award for an earlier work, “Bowling for Columbine.”
Critics accuse the film of being an unfair and inaccurate portrayal about President Bush’s policies before and after Sept. 11, 2001.
