The Daily Background

One of Michael Moore’s harshest critics on the internet, Jim Kenefick (pictured above, right), who runs the website MooreWatch.com, found himself in a strange situation recently.

Kenefick, who has been vocally critical of Moore’s filmmaking techniques which he labels deceptive, was having trouble keeping up with the costs of running his anti-Moore website and also paying several thousand dollars in health insurance premiums for his wife, who suffers from a neurological disorder. He posted appeals on the website, asking for donations to help keep the site afloat or to help with his wife’s mounting medical bills.

To his surprise, an anonymous donor sent him a $12,000 check- the amount that he said would tide him over for the rest of the year. That “guardian angel” later revealed himself in an answering machine message. It turned out to be Moore himself, and Kenefick found his story briefly featured in Moore’s upcoming film “SiCKO,” due to hit theaters nationally on June 29th.

“I felt like, Oh fuck. I can’t believe he would do this,” Kenefick told Newsweek.

Now Kenefick’s anti-Moore rhetoric may have softened. “Look, I don’t oppose Moore as a human being, or even on all of his positions, and I don’t know where I stand on health-care reform,” he says. “Nor do I presume to be so intelligent as to know how to solve this monumental issue.”

Kenefick says he can “handle the heat generated by being used in the movie as some kind of ‘gotcha’ moment, and in the end, that $12,000 made our lives a little easier.”

“In the end,” he said, “it reduced the stress on my wife, and taking away even one of her worries—in this case it made it possible for us to pay off everything faster than we’d planned—is worth a lot.”

“I’ve said this about nine times on my Web site: ‘Thank you Michael Moore.’ Your gift took a huge burden off my shoulders. But I still don’t like your style.”

You can listen to Moore’s message on Kenefick’s answering machine revealing himself here (MP3, 906KB).

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