Idiot Nation Response

This week our assignment was to read Idiot Nation by Michael Moore and respond with some more raw response. I knew this information would be controversal to those without a lifetime of exposure to the more direct and brutal of peoples oppinions, but I did not consider it to be much of a stretch for myself. I was not only prepared for read one mans oppinion on our society, but actually looking forward to it. I relished the idea of engaging in some great debate on the merits and wisdom of his beleifs.
What I was not prepared for was an oppinion article laced with sudo factual data that is delivered as the truth. "There are forty-four million Americans who cannot read or write above a fourth grade level", great fact but where is the footnote? Where did he get this information? When was this study published? He lays out information in order to bolster his oppinion, but without any traceable validation or complete reference. He then goes on to answer all my questions about validity with "How did I learn this statistic? Well, I read it." Oh boy that make it all better now doesnt it. There are way too many other examples of this authors creative use of "facts" to cover in this response, but I can tell you that there are more holes in his information than a cheese grater.
I beleive everyone is entitiled to their oppinion. I have an issue when it is distributed to people with facts that have more bends and twists in them than a pretzel. It is dangerous and irresponsible to distribute information closer to propoganda than fact without a disclaimer attached.