Celebrity Michael Moore Calls Snipers 'Cowards' Following 'American Sniper' 's Success By Maria Mercedes Lara Maria Mercedes Lara Instagram Twitter Maria Mercedes Lara is the Digital Content Operations Director for PEOPLE, where she oversees content management and editorial workflow for the digital team as well as focus on increasing growth through PEOPLE's newsletters, homepage and notification audiences. She previously held the position of Deputy News Director for PEOPLE.com. Before joining PEOPLE, Maria worked at POPSUGAR, SpinMedia Group and Jezebel. She graduated with a B.A. in Literature from Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts at the New School in New York City. Maria currently lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and two children. People Editorial Guidelines Published on January 19, 2015 10:45 AM Share Tweet Pin Email Photo: Brock Miller/Splash News Online; Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc American Sniper may have been a broken box-office records over the weekend, but there is one man who is not impressed with the new film. On Sunday, filmmaker Michael Moore condemned snipers in a series of Tweets. “My uncle killed by sniper in WW2,” Moore wrote. “We were taught snipers were cowards. Will shoot u in the back. Snipers aren’t heroes. And invaders r worse.” He continued: “But if you’re on the roof of your home defending it from invaders who’ve come 7K miles, you are not a sniper, u are brave, u are a neighbor.” Although he did not directly name American Sniper or Chris Kyle, the real-life Navy SEAL upon whom the film is based, it is clear that Moore was referring to the project, which earned six Oscar nominations last week, including those for Best Picture and Best Actor, Bradley Cooper, who plays Kyle. The backlash to Moore’s tweets was almost immediate, with conservative Fox News host Sean Hannity chiming in to brand Moore an “idiot.” “Hey Michael, when snipers like Chris Kyle are saving AMERICAN lives, that would be a good thing,” Hannity wrote. “Even an idiot like U can get that.” Moore has long been an open critic of the Iraq War, and it was a major subject of his 2004 film, Fahrenheit 9/11, which analyzed the War on Terror, corporate America, and then-president George W. Bush. One award season project that Moore is clearly a fan of is Selma, the film based on Martin Luther King Jr. and the 1965 civil rights marches in Selma, Alabama. “Try to see SELMA this weekend,” Moore wrote last week. “Simply because it is a piece of brilliant filmmaking, the likes of which are so rare.”