On the day that author/documentarian Michael Moore's new documentary film, Fahrenheit 9/11, opened in New York City (in advance of the film's June 25 nationwide release), the New York Post pointed to comparisons made by conservative author and columnist Christopher Hitchens and by New York Post film critic Jonathan Foreman of Moore to Nazi-propaganda filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. On June 23, the Post editorialized, “On one level, 'Fahrenheit 911' is only a movie -- albeit one that writer Christopher Hitchens and Post film critic Jonathan Foreman can liken to the work of Leni Riefenstahl, Adolf Hitler's favorite filmmaker.”

Foreman, in a June 23 Post op-ed wrote, “For all its clever slickness, Michael Moore's 'Fahrenheit 9/11' does not stack up to such brilliant but evil art as Leni Riefenstahl's propaganda films for Hitler.” Hitchens, in a June 21 Slate.com "Fighting Words" column, wrote, “With Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 ... we glimpse a possible fusion between the turgid routines of MoveOn.org and the filmic standards, if not exactly the filmic skills, of Sergei Eisenstein [the Stalin-era Russian filmmaker] or Leni Riefenstahl."

Hitchens has authored numerous books, including No One Left to Lie To: The Values of the Worst Family (2000), which was written to smear both former President Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Clinton, and No One Left to Lie To: The Triangulations of William Jefferson Clinton (1999). Hitchens is a contributor to Slate.com's "Fighting Words" column; writes a monthly books essay for The Atlantic Monthly; and is a columnist for Vanity Fair.