June 1, 2006
$75 mil for 10 seconds of work?
I don’t know that I’ll ever understand our litigious society. Americans will sue over anything. We sue for damages following just about any sort of accident. I guess if you look at things just right, you know, really squint up your eyes and angle it to the light, someone can be caught holding the blame for every chance occurrence. We also sue if we feel we’ve been attacked or harmed, even when that attack is largely fantasy and that harm mostly imaginary.
It’s this last type of suit that has me really puzzled today. Massachusetts National Guardsman Sgt. Peter Damon just filed suit against Michael Moore because Damon appeared very briefly in Fahrenheit 9/11 and he doesn’t like the way he thinks he was portrayed. Damon is seeking $75 million for all the pain and embarrassment he suffered while his wife is demanding another $10 million for all the pain she endured vicariously through her husband, or maybe it’s just because he was such a pain the last few years and she had to put up with him.
Damon’s claim is based on Moore’s use of part of an interview Damon gave to an NBC Nightly News correspondent at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. where he talked about the pain he felt following the double amputation of his arms after an accidental helicopter tire explosion in Iraq. Moore used the interview as part of a sequence showing injured Iraq war vets at home and demonstrating the heavy toll war takes on its survivors.
The way Damon sees this, he’s been harmed here because by appearing in the movie right after Moore showed Washington Democratic Representative Jim McDermott talking about how Our Fine President’s decisions have left veterans behind. Damon thinks this make it look like he feels left behind. As a proud American veteran Damon feels nothing of the kind. In his lawsuit he goes so far as to say he was not left behind, but instead “supported, financially and emotionally, by the active assistance of the president, the United States and his family, friends, acquaintances and community.” But that mean Michael Moore portrayed him as a biter vet and ruined his reputation and left him all ashamed of himself because his reputation has been besmirched and his view misrepresented.
I guess it takes two years before your emotional hurt compiles its way to $75 million because why else would Damon have decided to wait two years after the release of the film to complain. It makes little sense especially since he appears in the movie for about 10 seconds and is used to portray the pain of surviving veterans in a very real way as the point about soldiers left behind had been made in the previous sequence and he just follows a very smooth transition between topics.
I’m amazed that a such a baseless suit can be filed for so much money over such an unimportant incident. I’m sorry that Damon lost his arms and I think it’s very narrowmindedly forgiving of him that he still supports Our Fine President and the war effort, but Michael Moore did nothing that harmed him in any way and certainly not to the tune of $75 million. Damon might be a big enough pain in the ass to lend merit to his wife’s $10 million request, but that money should probably come from him if that is the case.
I wonder a few things about this case including where Damon’s lawyer’s fees will come from and whether Moore will be able to force Damon to prove just how he was actively supported and assisted by Our Fine President. But the scary part of all this is that if Moore can’t get the suit quashed on some technicality and this thing makes it to a jury of his peers, Damon could win.