Cal State San Marcos first university to dump Mikey Moore

[hoosier]

September 17, 2004

Cal State San Marcos is the first university in the nation to dump Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore, and he plans to sue if administrators don't let him speak.

Advertisement "If they don't do the right thing, follow through on the contract – and we have a written contract and an oral one – then we will take legal action," Moore said yesterday.

The issue has become a matter of principle to Moore, who said he believed university officials were sending the wrong message to students by reversing their stand and revoking their invitation to him to speak Oct. 13.

Although students and outraged community members have been raising private money to cover the $35,000 cost of the event, Moore said he didn't want the students to have to spend their money to cover the university's commitment.

It's not about the money, said Moore, who has made millions from his award-winning films, best-selling books and TV shows, and he said he's in big demand on college campuses because he is such a provocative figure.

"I go to college campuses because I want students to get interested in democracy," he said. "I want students to vote."

The 7,500-student California State University San Marcos had invited the outspoken Moore last year, but the deadly October wildfires shut down both the campus and his visit. Last week, the university invited him back, and student leaders voted overwhelmingly to subsidize his visit. Then, two days later, university President Karen Haynes announced she was calling it off because she would not spend state money on partisan politics.

The university has been besieged with calls about Moore, both for and against his appearance. Haynes has maintained that the university changed its terms not because of any outside pressure but because Moore himself had changed.

"When we originally invited him, he was not the partisan he is now," Haynes said.

Moore's most recent film, "Fahrenheit 9/11," is highly critical of the Bush administration and the Bush family, and Moore has made no secret of his dislike for Bush, denouncing him publicly during his Academy Awards acceptance speech in March 2003. Last spring, he made headlines when "Fahrenheit 9/11" took the top prize at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, and when the Disney corporation deemed it too political and dropped it, Lion's Gate stepped in, and "Fahrenheit 9/11" became the highest-grossing documentary in film history.

But Moore countered that he has always been openly partisan. He publicly endorsed Ralph Nader in 2000, and this election, he has not endorsed Democratic nominee John Kerry in the general election, but he endorsed retired Gen. Wesley Clark in the Democratic primary.

Responding to Haynes' argument, Moore said, "That truly is the dumbest thing I've ever heard from a university president."

Haynes sent a statement to student leaders and some faculty saying she could not have Moore at Cal State San Marcos before the election because "the proposed date, only a few weeks away, does not allow time to identify and secure a speaker of comparable significance who can provide a balancing perspective during this election year," Haynes said in the statement.

Haynes has offered to let Moore speak at the university after the election.

University officials acknowledged they did not try to find any conservatives. Student leaders had months ago asked Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to come but said he never got back to them.

Moore said the "balance" argument was a smoke screen, because he offered to help the university find a conservative. "There have been other schools that have this balance issue, and we've gotten conservative speakers for them. That's the definition of being liberal – you're open-minded."

Moore accused the university of violating the students' democratic rights by asking them to vote and then ignoring their will.

Yesterday, university officials said they were unaware of any potential breach-of-contract lawsuit.