Errol Morris takes on Donald Rumsfeld

992

Originally published at Reason.com by Nick Gillespie & Jim Epstein on 4/12/14

Much of Morris’ work explores, as he puts it, “how people prefer untruth to truth” and how they’re “blinded by their own spurious convictions.”

“Errol Morris on Donald Rumsfeld, The Unknown Known, and Evidence-Based Journalism”, by Nick Gillespie and Jim Epstein, was released on April 3, 2014. The original writeup follows: 

Donald Rumsfeld’s “war crime,” says Oscar-winning filmmaker Errol Morris, is “the gobbledygook, the blizzard of words, the misdirections, the evasions…and ultimately at the heart of it all…the disregard and devaluation of evidence.”

The former secretary of defense’s complicated relationship with the truth is the subject of Morris’ new documentary, The Unknown Knownwhich opens in theaters nationwide on Friday, April 4.The Unknown Known is an extended conversation with Rumsfeld, tracing his long career through the Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Bush administrations, and focusing on his role in leading U.S. military forces into Iraq to fight a bloody and senseless war.

In the film, Morris engages in a verbal sparring session with Rumsfeld in an effort to break through the linguistic “evasions” and “gobbledygook” for which he’s known.

The title of the film comes from Rumsfeld’s response to a question by NBC reporter Jim Miklaszewski at a Pentagon news conference on February 12, 2002. When Miklaszewski asked Rumsfeld if there was any evidence that Iraq was supplying terrorists with weapons, Rumsfeld replied:

Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t know we don’t know.

In a four-part series in The New York Times titled “The Certainty of Donald Rumsfeld,” Morris wrote: “Many people believe Rumsfeld’s reply was brilliant. I think otherwise.”

The Unknown Known is Errol Morris’ 10th documentary feature. He’s also the author of two best-selling books and the director of over 1,000 TV commercials. Much of Morris’ work explores, as he puts it, “how people prefer untruth to truth” and how they’re “blinded by their own spurious convictions.”

Reason TV‘s Nick Gillespie sat down for an extended chat with Morris about The Unknown Known. They discussed, among other things, the difference between Rumsfeld and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, whose complicated relationship with his own mistakes is the subject of Morris’ Oscar-winning film, The Fog of War; Morris’ take on the Jeffrey MacDonald murder case, which was the subject of his book, A Wilderness of Error; how Obama compares to Bush; his friendships with Roger Ebert and Werner Herzog; and why “we’re all morons.”

Gillespie conducted the interview using an “interrotron,” a device Morris invented, which projects an interviewer’s face over the camera lens. It creates the impression that the subject is looking directly into the eyes of the viewer.

About 41 minutes.

Shot and edited by Jim Epstein.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld smirks in front of backdrop of the path of Flight 77 heading to the Pentagon
Defense Secretary Donal Rumsfeld

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on what we know and what don’t know:

Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don’t know we don’t know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones.

Previous articleThe U.S. government’s creeping war on journalists
Next articleThe 2014 9/11 Truth Film Festival: “Exposing The Greatest Fraud on Earth!”

Since 2004, 911Truth.Org has educated the public about the suppressed realities of the September 11 attacks.

We worked with the 9/11 Families to pressure the Bush administration to convene an investigation into the deadliest attacks on US soil since Pearl Harbor. We attended many of the commission hearings and questioned commissioners and bird-dogged elected officials to get answers to the Unanswered Questions that remain so to this day.

We reported the contradictions, lies and omissions on the public record. 911Truth.Org staff have given hundreds of interviews on radio and mainstream network TV.

We cover a wide range of 9/11-related issues in publishing academic papers, original research, and opinion pieces.

We wish to thank our donors who have kept us on the web since 2004! We appreciate your continued support!

We continue to update the website to make the nearly 3000 articles easier to find, read and share. Thanks for visiting us!