The New York Times reports that Disney has declined to distribute Michael Moore’s upcoming film Fahrenheit 9/11 through its Miramax subsidiary.

Now, before the predictable conspiracy talk starts, the article states that “Miramax is free to seek another distributor in North America, although such a deal would force it to share profits and be a blow to Harvey Weinstein, a big donor to Democrats.” In other words, the film will see the light of day, it just won’t be Disney shareholders who assume the financial risk of distributing it.

While Moore’s representatives claim that Disney’s decision is based on a desire to keep tax breaks for its Florida theme parks, the article cites a senior Disney executive on what may be the real reason:

Mr. Moore’s film, the executive said, is deemed to be against Disney’s interests not because of the company’s business dealings with the government but because Disney caters to families of all political stripes and believes Mr. Moore’s film could alienate many.

“It’s not in the interest of any major corporation to be dragged into a highly charged partisan political battle,” this executive said.

Later in the article, the Times says Mr. Moore denied the partisan label:

Mr. Moore does not disagree that “Fahrenheit 9/11” is highly charged, but he took issue with the description of it as partisan. “If this is partisan in any way it is partisan on the side of the poor and working people in this country who provide fodder for this war machine,” he said.

In order to believe the denial of partisanship, you have to believe that the timing of the film’s release (just weeks before the election), the target of the film (George W. Bush) and Mr. Moore’s past statements about the need to defeat President Bush are all mere coincidences.

Based on what you know of Michael Moore, do you think Fahrenheit 9/11 is likely to be partisan? If you’re not sure, here are a few choice quotes from Michael Moore’s Call to Arms, a video interview with Michael Moore posted on Brain Terminal last September:

• Michael Moore on why he does his work: “I create my work so that we end up with a country that is being run by a set of values and a political agenda.”
• Michael Moore on who’s responsible for September 11th: “I think Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Lott and the Republican Party owe the American people and the families of those 3,000 dead a huge fucking apology.”
• Michael Moore on the 1998 Congressional elections: “What better year to come on the air when we got to watch the Republican Party go down in flames.”
• Michael Moore on Hillary Clinton: “Maybe she should be the one who should be President instead of the other guy in the White House.”
• Michael Moore on President Bush: “Commander-in-Thief.”
• Michael Moore on the Bush Administration: “They were able to steal our White House from us.”
• Michael Moore on the John Ashcroft: “John Ashcroft and his ilk are something to fear. They are stealing our country from us.”
• Michael Moore on uniting the left: “Democrats and Greens have got to come together and form a coalition and get that guy out of the White House.”
• Michael Moore on the 2004 Presidential election: “We do need to remove Bush in 2004. There’s no doubt about that.”

Is Michael Moore partisan? I guess we’ll just have to take him at his word.