All of Michael Moore's documantaries that i have viewed have been quite confronting and incredibly informative. Having said this, I have also noticed that there is a great deal of bias represented in his documentaries. After viewing Bowling for Columbine, which presented the idea of America's gun laws being much too lenient after the shooting massacre by a Columbine student, I decided to do my research into the gun laws in America. Although Moore was correct about the ease involved in owning a gun in America, I found that the getting a gun with a bank loan was not quite as it appeared. Sure you could recieve the gun with the loan but not quite as quickly as Moore did, you had to of been with the bank for six monts before you recieved the gun. This bias was also evident in Capatilam: A Love Story, many interviews provided back up for Moore's views but the interviews were only conducted with those who supported what Moore was saying. Without seeing the other side of the story we are positioned to agree with Moore and therefore this is a technique that is being used. Similarly actuality is used to show Moore's point of view. In Bowling for Columbine we saw him knocking on the doors in Canada to prove that no one was home and then walking straight into the houses, showing how trusting they are to leave their doors unlocked. Although we can see this really happening in front of us, we dont know if he has been around to these houses earlier and set this up. This can be seen as another form of bias. In Capatilism: A Love Story we see real footage of the sheriff evicting innocent people from their houses, Moore is trying to present America in a negative way. He says that the citizens have had no warning before being evicted but for him to happen to be filming there on that day is a pretty big coincidence if they had no warning. Showing this the way he wants to is another form of bias.
Although Moore's films are very interesting and controversial, you still have to wonder how much of the story is true.