He taped everyone in sight, produced his own ad-hoc version of The Tonight Show before nap time, and went on to launch his own newspaper at school. In an amusing precursor of future events, the paper would be shut down almost right away after criticism of school sports programs.

More than half a century later, Moore is still going against the grain. His career arc is unique in the modern media landscape, being one of the very few figures to achieve commercial success and broad audience share without the full support of one or the other wing of the blue/red news media ecosystem.

Moore came to prominence as a critic of corporate sociopathy in Roger and Me, and became a liberal icon in the Bush years with Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine, but his anti-corporate, anti-war, pro-labor message has never aligned exactly with the Democratic Party, either. Most recently he's been a pointed critic of Democratic policies that opened the door for Trump's election in 2016, while also voicing criticisms of the cult of Robert Mueller and Barack Obama's contribution to the Flint water crisis.