POLITICS Koppel gives his perspective on 'Fahrenheit'

KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
"Fahrenheit 9/11," Michael Moore's hit, President Bush-bashing documentary, "is dangerous, if people think it's true," said ABC's Ted Koppel.
"There are certain fundamental biases that people always have, whether against a Bill Clinton or a George Bush or maybe someday against a John Kerry," Koppel said Monday in an interview.
" ... I don't think Michael would have any problem with me saying he's not a reporter. He's a polemicist ... and he does it very well. What troubles me is that sometimes what he does is confused with straight journalism."
While "very interesting entertainment," "9/11" "is to the documentary what the 'JFK' movie [Oliver Stone's 1991 feature] is to history," Koppel told critics. "'Nightline' will never be as entertaining as '9/11' or 'JFK,' but there's still a need for down-the-middle news."
Moore labeled '9/11' an "op-ed piece." Koppel doesn't buy it.
"I don't think it's a documentary that depends all too much or scrupulously on facts, but its form is a documentary film. Let's face it, I haven't heard him [Moore] reject the notion that it's [on track to be] the biggest moneymaking documentary film in the history of the art form."