This is the very agrument ad acency creatives justify their worship of highly questionable "values": gratuitios sex, youth, surface beauty, seduction, luxury, convenience, greed, vanity, well all the seven sins combined... They say tv commercials just reflect the culture we live in. I say: Bullshit! Tv commercials are powerful opinion makers and a manipulating tool.
Once again I have to agree with Ken: with great power comes great responsibility.
Well I am not someone who easily believes in conspiracy theories, but I still don't know for sure who killed John F. - And even though (please forgive me for bringing that up since this is a very senditive issue) I am not convinced that 9.11 was an inside job, there are a lot of questions remaining open.

I would also like to add "Munich" - a great movie BTW. Sure, it is fictionalized, but there is a clear message: something similar very likely happened.

Michael Moore is a propagandist. I think many of his "stunts" are fake. I love the guy's style and sense of twisted humor, but I don't know squat about what really happened, what is really undisputable fact and why - after viewing any of his "documentaries" like "Bowling for Columbine", "Fahrenheit 911" or "Sicko".

Would Munich's message about the neverending cycle of violence be any less effective if it turned out the events of the film were largely fictional?

Well I don't think so. We all have enough fantasy to imagine that the basic premise of "Munich" is true. The individual stories, and even the fact that the people chosen to do the top secret counter attacks were actually amateurs, don't matter. I believe that the overall message is 100% true (the cycle of violence as you correctly named it). The fact that everything but the events at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games are fictionalized is even helpful: no accusations can be made that the movie wrongly blames anyone or didn't get the facts straight. It's one of the rare: "It could have been exactly like that, but the filmmakers take no responsibility" movies. Since it also serves as an allegory about any kind of violence, it leaves such an impact. I must admit that I was floored by this movie. Perhaps in part because at age eleven I followed the 1972 Olympic Games in my home country - and the horrible events - in detail. I still have books about it which I bought back then. And believe me: I don't know of any fellow German who wasn't deeply affected and depressed by the events unfolding during the "games". This, after all, was supposed to be about world peace. No such luck.....

To me, it seems like a simple answer.

If a filmmaker is out to make a truly, biographical-style offering, then yes, it should be as accurate as the running time (and financiers) permit. Or, just make a documentary.

For any other "based on" scenario, you would like to see elements drawn from history but the trumping factor goes to quality and entertainment value. Period.