Michael Moore's Protest to CNN

I got to see the incident with Michael Moore on CNN that started this whole fracas. CNN fucked up big time with a false report about 'Sicko' Moore's new film critical of the health industry. CNN had a conflict of interest which blew up in their face. Their pharmaceutical advertisers obviously encouraged CNN to put on a piece questioning the facts in Sicko. Unfortunately they got the facts wrong, and tried to use THAT as a complete distraction from the message of Moore's movie.

Here is Moore's official response below. I think he should go after the MEDIA circus in his next film/book, whatever!

Saturday, July 14th, 2007
An Open Letter to CNN from Michael Moore


Dear CNN,

Well, the week is over -- and still no apology, no retraction, no correction of your glaring mistakes.

I bet you thought my dust-up with Wolf Blitzer was just a cool ratings coup, that you really wouldn't have to correct the false statements you made about "Sicko." I bet you thought I was just going to go quietly away.

Think again. I'm about to become your worst nightmare. 'Cause I ain't ever going away. Not until you set the record straight, and apologize to your viewers. "The Most Trusted Name in News?" I think it's safe to say you can retire that slogan.

You have an occasional segment called "Keeping Them Honest." But who keeps you honest? After what the public saw with your report on "Sicko," and how many inaccuracies that report contained, how can anyone believe anything you say on your network? In the old days, before the Internet, you could get away with it. Your victims had no way to set the record straight, to show the viewers how you had misrepresented the truth. But now, we can post the truth -- and back it up with evidence and facts -- on the web, for all to see. And boy, judging from the mail both you and I have been receiving, the evidence I have posted on my site about your "Sicko" piece has led millions now to question your honesty.

I won't waste your time rehashing your errors. You know what they are. What I want to do is help you come clean. Admit you were wrong. What is the shame in that? We all make mistakes. I know it's hard to admit it when you've screwed up, but it's also liberating and cathartic. It not only makes you a better person, it helps prevent you from screwing up again. Imagine how many people will be drawn to a network that says, "We made a mistake. We're human. We're sorry. We will make mistakes in the future -- but we will always correct them so that you know you can trust us." Now, how hard would that really be?

As you know, I hold no personal animosity against you or any of your staff. You and your parent company have been very good to me over the years. You distributed my first film, "Roger & Me" and you published "Dude, Where's My Country?" Larry King has had me on twice in the last two weeks. I couldn't ask for better treatment.

That's why I was so stunned when you let a doctor who knows a lot about brain surgery -- but apparently very little about public policy -- do a "fact check" story, not on the medical issues in "Sicko," but rather on the economic and political information in the film. Is this why there has been a delay in your apology, because you are trying to get a DOCTOR to say he was wrong? Please tell him not to worry, no one is filing a malpractice claim against him. Dr. Gupta does excellent and compassionate stories on CNN about people's health and how we can take better care of ourselves. But when it came time to discuss universal health care, he rushed together a bunch of sloppy -- and old -- research. When his producer called us about his report the day before it aired, we sent to her, in an email, all the evidence so that he wouldn't make any mistakes on air. He chose to ignore ALL the evidence, and ran with all his falsehoods -- even though he had been given the facts a full day before! How could that happen? And now, for 5 days, I have posted on my website, for all to see, every mistake and error he made.

You, on the other hand, in the face of this overwhelming evidence and a huge public backlash, have chosen to remain silent, probably praying and hoping this will all go away.

Well it isn't. We are now going to start looking into the veracity of other reports you have aired on other topics. Nothing you say now can be believed. In 2002, the New York Times busted you for bringing celebrities on your shows and not telling your viewers they were paid spokespeople for the pharmaceutical companies. You promised never to do it again. But there you were, in 2005, talking to Joe Theismann, on air, as he pushed some drug company-sponsored website on prostate health. You said nothing about about his affiliation with GlaxoSmithKline.

Clearly, no one is keeping you honest, so I guess I'm going to have to do that job, too. $1.5 billion is spent each year by the drug companies on ads on CNN and the other four networks. I'm sure that has nothing to do with any of this. After all, if someone gave me $1.5 billion, I have to admit, I might say a kind word or two about them. Who wouldn't?!

I expect CNN to put this matter to rest. Say you're sorry and correct your story -- like any good journalist would.

Then we can get back to more important things. Like a REAL discussion about our broken health care system. Everything else is a distraction from what really matters.

Yours,
Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
www.michaelmoore.com

P.S. If you also want to apologize for not doing your job at the start of the Iraq War, I'm sure most Americans would be very happy to accept your apology. You and the other networks were willing partners with Bush, flying flags all over the TV screens and never asking the hard questions that you should have asked. You might have prevented a war. You might have saved the lives of those 3,610 soldiers who are no longer with us. Instead, you blew air kisses at a commander in chief who clearly was making it all up. Millions of us knew that -- why didn't you? I think you did. And, in my opinion, that makes you responsible for this war. Instead of doing the job the founding fathers wanted you to do -- keeping those in power honest (that's why they made it the FIRST amendment) -- you and much of the media went on the attack against the few public figures like myself who dared to question the nightmare we were about to enter. You've never thanked me or the Dixie Chicks or Al Gore for doing your job for you. That's OK. Just tell the truth from this point on.

 

Uh, you ppl are very misinformed.

I suppose Michael Moore was wrong about Bush and his other claims in Fahrenheit 9/11, right?

In fact he's been proven more correct that ANY PUNDIT on ANY MEDIA OUTLET.

CNN, rather than using Moore's movie as a starting point to DEBATE the whole issue of Health Care in America, chose a couple of minor statistics (which they got wrong, not Moore) to bash his whole movie with.

You guys fall for the media propaganda about Moore, which was the BASIS for his whole protest to CNN, who is only ONE media outlet, out of many, that has chosen to distract from Moore's messages by attacking the messenger, cause his message is always RIGHT ON!

And the few items CNN could find in his WHOLE movie that they choose to air, were OUTRIGHT lies. Moore checks his facts UNLIKE the MEDIA who are fed LIES over and over by the likes of Karl Rove and the INDUSTRIES that pay the MEDIA to air their propaganda EVERY FUCKING DAY.

No wonder you are too brainwashed to think for yourselves.

Baaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

 

I fixed it!

 

I could float on Michael Moore, so no problem there!

People who criticize the whistleblowers like Michael Moore and Al Gore, should look at themselves, and see what THEY are doing to make this world a better place.

The fact is, in his latest movie, which has gotten rave reviews by even conservatives, he doesn't try to confront the industry directly (probably because they were ready for him and his tricks). Instead he focuses on the effects the industry has upon the average joe. Doing that, he can hardly go wrong because it's a well documented story.

Attacking the messenger cause you don't like the message is stupid and non-productive.

CNN was guilty of attacking the messenger. How many other movies do they "fact check", huh? I doubt there are many.

CNN and any good journalist would've followed thru on Moore's movie's theme and done what he didn't do, confront the industry itself. They should be interviewing the heads of the industry, not their PR man, they should be digging up their OWN facts, doing their own indepth investigations.

But no, that alienates their advertisers, requires a lot of resources and manpower to do, is likely to cause even more controversy, etc...

So if the "FREE" press won't do its job, it's left to people like Moore to do it.

If you dismiss him (and those like Al Gore) rather than DEAL with the issues they present, you are responsible for the consequences, because there ARE NO MORE REAL HEREOS in this world who will bail your asses out of the mess you LET HAPPEN through denial.