Michael Moore is choosing to pull Fahrenheit 9/11 out contention for a Best Documentary Oscar nomination in a bid to get the film shown to a wider audience on broadcast TV. However, he will submit his record breaking doc for the Best Film consideration.

It may seem like an ego boosting ploy by a filmmaker who already has one documentary Oscar statue on his shelf, but the controversial filmmaker says he has an alternate agenda.

'Having a second one would be nice,' Moore wrote in an open letter on his website (michaelmoore.com), 'but not as nice as getting this country back in the hands of the majority.'

Moore says he was inspired to make the switch after a recent dinner with a 'well-known pollster' friend who told the filmmaker that he believes 'if Kerry wins, Fahrenheit 9/11 will be one of the top three reasons for his election.'

The unnamed pollster, who Moore says had worked for the Republicans, became 'so distraught' with what he saw about the Bush Administration in Fahrenheit 9/11 that he conducted his own informal polls with Fahrenheit 9/11 audiences in three different cities to see if the movie could sway voters. He found that the film's audiences were already leaning towards voting for Kerry, but that the movie had 'galvanized them in a way you rarely see Democrats galvanized.'

'But, here's the bad news for Bush,' the pollster continued. 'Though 80% going IN to (Fahrenheit 9/11) are Kerry voters, 100% of those COMING OUT of your movie are Kerry voters. You can't come out of this movie and say, 'I am absolutely and enthusiastically voting for George W. Bush.''

But the bad news for Kerry is that although some polls show that Republican's have been swayed to change or consider changing their votes, not enough non-Kerry audiences are seeing the movie.

'Kerry's only problem,' the pollster tells Moore '...is how many people will actually be able to see (Fahrenheit 9/11) before election day. The less that see it, the better for Bush.'

'The Bush White House left open a huge void when it came to explaining the war to the American people,' the pollster added. 'And (Fahrenheit 9/11) has filled that void -- and now there is no way to defeat it. It is the atomic bomb of this campaign.'

Moore has already assured an October release of Fahrenheit 9/11 on DVD and home video, but he now wants to do more to get the movie out to the American public before the November 2 election.

He thinks that TV is his next option.

'The only problem with my desire to get this movie in front of as many Americans as possible,' Moore writes, 'is that, should it air on TV, I will NOT be eligible to submit Fahrenheit 9/11 for Academy Award consideration for Best Documentary.'

Under Academy rules, documentaries are ineligible for Oscar consideration if aired on television or the Internet within nine months of their theatrical release.

Michael Moore's controversial exposé's Oscar chances were challenged once already, after an unauthorized broadcast of Fahrenheit 9/11 made it onto Cuban broadcast television earlier in the summer. However, the U.S. distributors of Fahrenheit 9/11 confirmed that the unauthorized telecast would not disqualify the movie from Oscar competition in the feature documentary category.

This time, it's Moore who has decided to pull his record-smashing movie from consideration for the Best Documentary Oscar.

'If there is even the remotest of chances that I can get this film seen by a few million more Americans before election day,' Moore says, 'then that is more important to me than winning another documentary Oscar.'

But plans for Moore's doc to reach TV screens before the November Election may not be realized. The home video distributors of Fahrenheit 9/11 have told Moore that they don't plan on airing the documentary on broadcast TV any time soon.

'Although I have no assurance from our home video distributor that they would allow a one-time television broadcast -- and the chances are they probably won't -- I have decided it is more important to take that risk and hope against hope that I can persuade someone to put it on TV, even if it's the night before the election,' Moore wrote.