Even if you missed some, or all, of the television shows, Moore's stories will still bring you many smiles and laughs. True to the humorous, yet real, spirit of his film Roger & Me, he continues to focus on the effects that our "booming" economy has on the non-upper classes. ( )

Some people might wonder why, when I'm writing a review on a book, I generally discuss the underlying themes of the book rather than actually writing a review and commenting on grammar, structure, plot, and characters. Well, when we are dealing with non-fiction books, such as this one, plot and characters do not play a huge role, and with regards to grammar and structure I suspect (or rather hope) that all of the problems are ironed out in the editorial stage. Okay, I'm not an editor, and I have only edited a couple of books for friends, but I generally deal with those issues at this stage and not after. Thus, when I pick up a book and read it, it is generally the underlying themes that interest me.
Now, the next question that you're are probably asking is what has the above paragraph to do this this particular book? Absolutely nothing whatsoever. However, I have (and will continue to) develop the themes through many of the other similar books that I have read on the topic of the abuse of corporate power. I will mention it for this book as well, and also comment on a book itself, but I am also attempting to set the context of where I am coming from with a lot of my reviews (if one is to call them as such). Now, one of the guys at my work (actually the boss) suggested that I should start a blog because I seem to have a lot of strange ideas. My response to that is, 'that is what Facebook is for'. Okay, not everybody is on Facebook, and others have fled Facebook due to its addictive nature, but to me, it is a blog that I can use without having to set up my own website, and since I allow pretty much everybody to access my account (which is why I keep all of my personal and identifying details hidden) I see no reason why I should put the extra work into creating my own webpage (and Librarything is also pretty good for these blogs as well).
Anyway, this book is a book that was written to accompany Michael Moore's first TV series, Adventures in a TV Nation. This only went one season and then became The Awful Truth, which lasted a further two seasons, at which time Michael Moore cancelled it and went on to produce movies. Now, Michael Moore is credited (and rightly so) for making documentaries interesting, and he did this with Bowling of Columbine. There is a lot of criticism of Moore's approach, and how he has used film to manipulate the truth to create his documentaries. All I can say to that is that this is a pretty clear case of the pot calling the kettle black. What they are saying is that it is fine for corporate America to use the media to peddle their propaganda to the unsuspecting population, but nobody is allowed to use the same tactics to peddle an opposing point of view.
Okay, it appears that Michael Moore does not like criticism being levelled against him, and he is also accused of hypocrisy and greed, but it is interesting that these accusations are levelled against him by the very people that he is attempting to expose. It is as if by saying that the messenger is bad, then the message that he is propagating is bad, but then this is being said by people who are responsible for poor safety standards which result in the death of workers, and then refuse to cough up compensation for the workers' families who are entitled to be compensated.
However, this is the United States (and scarily enough we see it happening here in Australia as well). I'll use one recent event as an example and that is bringing in pre-commitment technology for poker machines. Now, poker machines are a Pandora's box. There was a time when you could not find any poker machines in Australia, and then bit by bit they were allowed into the casinos and were then allowed into the pubs and clubs. What this has created is an industry where people sit in front of them all day, pour their money into the machines, and end up destroying lives and families. However poker machines are big money for pubs and clubs (and all you have to do is look at my local to see that there are only two parts of the pub that seems to make money – the bottle shop and the poker machines) so pre-commitment technology is a threat to their profits, and thus they start a fear campaign (based upon misleading information) as to how this new technology will destroy the pub culture in Australia. This, to be honest, is rubbish. Sure, there are a number of pubs and clubs that simply scrape by on earnings from poker machines, but this does not justify the fact that families and lives are destroyed by them. Further, the original (and it is still the case now) plan was that only 'high roller' poker machines (that is ones where the minimum bet is five dollars) that will be subject to the ban. However, the clubs and pubs conveniently leave out this information.
As for the book, yeah, well, it was okay. Some of it was amusing, but actually watching the series (which I have not had the opportunity to do so) would be a lot more entertaining than simply reading a book about how the series was made. ( )

In 1994, Michael Moore (subsequently best known for Fahrenheit 911, Bowling for Columbine, and being a general pain in the butt to the Republican Party) produced, with others, a television show called TV Nation. The idea behind the show was to raise awareness of injustice and corruption in America, and to do so in a humorous style. Less than 20 episodes were made (although Moore went on to do another similar show called The Awful Truth), but durng its short run, it was highly acclaimed.

This books covers just some of the pieces which the show did - including Crackers the Corporate Crime Fighting Chicken, the CEO challenge (can the highly paid CEO’s of various companies, actually do the lesser paid jobs which their employees do?), and finding work for former KGB operatives (to name just a few).

The book, like the TV show, is all done in Moore’s familiar irreverent style, and does set out to achieve it’s aim, in that it provides laughs, but also deals with serious subjects. It also shows the compromises that had to be made in order to get certain segments on air, and the sometimes dangerous situations that Moore and his crew found themselves in. (There were actually some segments that never made it to air, or were severely edited before they were shown.)

I do tend to agree with Michael Moore on many issues, but don’t always agree with the way he reports them, as his reporting can be heavily biased and edited to make things look the way he wants them to watch. Nevertheless, he highlights the hypocrisy of the media and the people that run it, as well as certain politicians, and he manages to make serious issues watchable and interesting to read about.

Overall, this is an easy and enjoyable read, and I would recommend it. It’s also worth mentioning that you do not need to have seen any episodes of TV Nation – or indeed any other of Moore’s work – to fully enjoy this book. ( )

One of the lesser entries by the indefatigable Moore. In this work, he details his television show and the adventures and misadventures they had putting it together. His behind the scenes stories are fun and interesting, but do not come up to his other works. ( )

I remember watching TV Nation in the nineties, and loved it because it was so different to everything else on the TV. This is a reminder of the programmes themselves and the battles Moore and his team went through to get them on air.