This might be a good time to bring up Moore's personal appearance. The interview started at 11:35 a.m. I was led into the hotel suite by one of his friendly, efficient publicists. The room was more or less dark. Moore greeted me with a smile but remained seated. He is a very large man. Larger than he is on television, somehow. It reminded me of this rather pathetic line that I read from him once: "I'm not perfect. I'm sorry I'm overweight." God, that line is sad to me. He was drinking a Coke out of a hotel glass, and right after the interview started he took off his baseball cap and started rubbing his face. The message in his movements: "I am so tired. This is mind-numbing work. You have no idea. But you have a story to file, and I have a film to promote, so let's do this." At the same time, he was friendly and asked me if he could get me anything. I had a glass of water. Our conversation eventually got back to the sniper case.

There is nothing one can do about this violence?

There is nothing you can do. It's in the cards. It's fate. I mean, look, how many people live in the Washington, D.C., area? Five million people? In the whole greater area? There are 5 million people. And eight people have been shot. And 4,992,000 haven't been shot.

Ooh, am I going to get him committing his own little Bushism? Nope:

Wait, what is it? 4,999,992 people have not been shot. You could report it that way. Why are people's eyes fixed to that TV?

He takes a sip of Coke.

Well, like you said, because of the randomness of it, because we're all walking into the shopping center or whatever -- it could be me. Yes, it could be you. A lot of things could be you. But it ain't gonna be you.

If I were sharper, I would have said that those words wouldn't be much consolation to the kid's mother. But I didn't. Did I mention the part about how he kept rubbing his eyes?

You have three times greater chance of being struck by lightning than of being shot at school. But because it's going to start raining outside, you're not going to be afraid to go outside and hail a cab.

So then your solution is to be less afraid? Or ...

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think fear brings on a lot of the calamity. We almost will it to happen because we're so afraid of it.

Do you lock your door?

Yes!

Yeah. Yeah, I do.

His voice trails off, almost sorrowfully.

And you're not in a particularly dangerous place, right?

Now, I know exactly where Moore lives -- I even have a note in my notebook that says he paid $1.27 million for his 17th-floor apartment. But no, I don't bring this up. I'm laying a trap -- a trap that he's going to walk around with relative ease.

No.

So how do you get past that? How do you get past the point where you don't have to lock your door?

Well, I have to lock my door for different reasons. The danger of where I live is that there's a lot of rich people around me, because I live on the Upper West Side of New York. You know. So I'm not exactly their best friend. So I find them frightening. [Chuckles.] So I'm locking my door because of them. I've chosen to leave the comfort and security of my hometown and come to the town where all the rich live, all the corporations and Wall Street, you know, who helped to destroy my hometown.

I know Moore is trying to be funny here, but I'm not laughing. In fact, for the first time in the interview, I can smell the blood of easy irony -- Moore's favorite cocktail. Watch me. Here's my killer line:

Must be hard for you.

Moore laughs, of course.

Well ...

I turn it up a little.

There are a lot of people who would like to have that problem.

Well, yeah, it's something you aspire to, right, to live on the Upper West Side of New York. Whoa-ho. For me, I'm here because I've chosen to make films and TV shows and make books about these people who have caused a lot of harm and havoc to the rest of the country.

I do know what you're saying, but at the same time it seems really ... frankly, it just seems a little bit disingenuous.

Watch what Moore does here. He's going to flip this whole line on me by asking two simple questions.

Why is that?

I don't know. Probably, just at the very easiest, a lot of people would love to be in your position. A lot of people would be willing to trade a lot in order to ...

What position is that?

To have to live on the Upper West Side? To have to ...

It doesn't have to be on the Upper West Side. It could be anywhere in Manhattan.

You don't have to do any of this stuff.

And here's where he takes control. Watch him come in with the righteous crusader bit.

Well, I do. I feel that I have a personal responsibility to my own conscience to be here in New York, to do these things. Obviously, if you were going to describe my work, what is my work? I spend a lot of time taking on corporate America. Is that going to be easier to do in Flint, or in New York City?

And watch me fall for it.

Are you doing this because it's easy? Are you going to stand up and say that you are doing the easiest thing? Your whole thing has been to be as difficult ...

We go on like this for a while, but it never goes anywhere.

Let me get back to the film.

OK.

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