Weapons of mass deception.

Patrick McCormick may have been right when he wrote "The rise of documentaries is putting the heat on everyone from the presidents to hamburgers" in the October Culture in Context column ("Weapons of mass instruction").

I found the article fascinating. But he does seem to be rather too ready to accept the documentary film format as a "weapon of mass instruction" when in less-than-honest hands the format can easily be transformed into a potent weapon of mass propaganda.

Michael Moore may have produced a "blockbuster documentary" that earned a lot of money for him, but are all of those White House excesses and failures he documents with such glee in his film Fahrenheit 9/11 real? Can he prove any or all of those Bush family ties to Saudi oil that he describes? Should members of Congress vote only for wars to which their children are sent to fight with our all-volunteer services?

In Supersize Me, could writer-director Morgan Spurlock have avoided many of his health problems by applying common rules of good nutrition to making his selections from McDonald's menu? Granted, he risked being bored to death, but that is not my point here. Might he have gained just as much weight and cholestrol by cooking up and eating the same bad diet at home, with whole-wheat buns and free-range beef?

In The Corporation Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott were surprised to discover that an entity designed by individuals to make a profit for themselves is intent only on earning a profit for its owners.

Does Rupert Murdoch's Fox News simply parrot the White House talking heads as Robert Greenleaf states in his film Outfoxed, or is it really fair and balanced? It may only seem to be pro-White House in contrast with networks such as CBS, which admitted--under pressure--to using badly forged documents to "prove" that President Bush shirked his duty with the National Guard during the Vietnam War.

I've been impressed that the documentary film format, like any other format, is merely a tool for conveying information, both facts and lies, truths and half-truths. Viewers, including liberal professors, beware.

John Jay Blankenship

Harker Heights, Texas