Matt Lauer, of all people, takes it to Michael Moore without flinching.

Moore defends incendiary film

Lauer: "You accepted the Palm D'Or Award at the Cannes Film Festival. It's a huge honor, especially for a film like this. And you said, I think the quote was, ‘I did not set out to make a political film. The art of this, the cinema, comes before the politics.’"

Moore: "That's right. That's absolutely right."

Lauer: "I'm amazed you said it with a straight face."

By the way is "slime ball" two words as reported at the beginning of this story, or one word as in the original.