Micheal Moore's OPEN LETTER TO CNN
 

An Open Letter to CNN from Michael Moore

7/14/07

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 evide! nce, 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
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 f! or doing your job for you. That's OK. Just tell the truth from this point on.

.

.

.

The media will never tell the truth like they should.

1. They're a business like any other and will compete with each other for ratings, to be #1. They'll do what it takes, which has nothing to do with honesty.
2. The media, no matter from where, is made up of humans and they have a bias that tends to sway one way or another. You'll very rarely get a report that doesn't lean to one side... sometimes to the point of being completely untruthful.
3. They're easily used, taken advantage of or pressured/bought to say exactly what those in power want them to say. They're afraid of losing their jobs/rights just like everyone else... no matter what the first amendment is.

Say what you will about Michael Moore, but he gets people talking about issues.

What an obnoxious, pompous ass. He should become a message board troll instead of a filmmaker. He would excel at that.

I admire most of his causes, but I can't help thinking I would have liked to see Charlton Heston choke him out after he invited him into his home in Bowling for Columbine.

He pwned Chartlon Heston and that's what upsets you. He had no answers to Moore's questions because there were no answers.

Uhh, no. He entered the man's home under false pretenses, a man who is apparently suffering fromt the early stages of Alzheimers, then he also staged some fake scenes in the front of the house that made Heston look very bad, and took some of his speech quotes out of context as well for dramatic effect. He likes to talk about facts but he is the biggest fudger of them all.

Plus that whole movie bothered me because of the lies he made about guns in Canada.

just waiting for Baddog to post that he must be wrong because he's fat.

:helpme:error

While right-wing commentators like Bill O'Reilly and Ann Coulter suck the cock of the mainstream media its good to see someone like Moore tearing into them.

awesome!

Dear CNN

Please post and apology and shut Moore up,

Yours truly

CD.

I don't think cnn is interested in setting the record straight because I don't think they're intimidated by Micheal Moore. CNN is just a big corporation that's in it for the money, that's it.

That old scumbag had no problem going on behalf of the nra and talking in cities after gun deaths.fuck him.MM took nothing out of context or the NRA would of sued the shit out of him which they didnt.

Well he did take stuff out of context. As for the meetings after gun deaths most of that has been debunked as well. I would read this:

http://www.hardylaw.net/Truth_About_Bowling.html

He's not above lying to get his agenda across. It's easy to dismiss the person that made this site as some sort of tinfoil hat-wearing idiot, but I can personally verify all the lies Moore made about Canada in that film. Not just minor errors, but outright lies.

He even went so far as to splice different sound clips together from various speeches out of order to make Heston seem almost evil. I would expect something like that in a Weird Al interview, not in a "documentary".

I just don't get MM. He drives home his point that look at what i'm saying i must be right. Talks about the long waits at hospitals and Gupta and this movie show how other countries with socialized health care are no better off than the US.

http://onthefencefilms.com/video/deadmeat/

pleaaaaaaaase, MM don't tell us how great other countries hospitals and their health care are so much better than the US, when they really aren't

gotta agree with you here. he railroaded heston. He isn't perfect but he brings up many VALID points along with his shenanigans. He says what everyone would like to say but never gets the chance to be heard

I like the guy he tells it how it is

Another point about the Heston scene, there was about 5 minutes of footage of his interview in the movie. If you watch the clock in the background it shows that he was there for more than 23 minutes. I guess the rest of the stuff Heston said didn't jive with Moore's message. Moore is a clever filmmaker but this latest tirade with CNN proves he is also a hypocrite.

Charlton Heston owned Michael Moore by refusing his absurd demand that Heston apologize for the death of Kayla Rowland. I also enjoyed the part in Bowling for Columbine where MM chases Dick Clark yelling "this woman (Kayla's mother) was forced to work!" Pure comedy.
Bowling for Columbine is the only Michael Moore movie I have ever seen. I will not see Sicko. Why? Because I have been in favor of universal healthcare (despite my strong libertarian leanings) for a long time and don't need to watch some slanted propaganda film to tell me what to think.

Like you said he isnt perfect, but then who is. Personally I like him :thumbsup

christ the guy is trying to help the poor and middle class people of the United states....and so what if he makes a buck while doing it....anyway..helping the people..and people here call him obnoxious...fat....stupid...the list goes on.

point being..besides tossing some charity that catches your eye, a couple hundred bucks...or for some of the bigger swinging dicks..who definitely dont post here...2000-10000 when they feel moved one day....besides those small tiny offerings...no one here does anything to make anyones lives better

besides offering quality wanking material at a fair price..lol

anyway...get off his ass...the guy should be knighted.
hes always been on the ball and showing you what is really going on...the fact that truth is hard to swallow shouldnt make you stick your head in the ground like an ostrich...open your eyes...and go get your country back.

WE need to do the same cleaning up here in canada..fuckin harper is a traitor to his own people...thanks for the nuclear plants dickhead

the hardest thing in the world is to admit your faults, and that you were wrong or that you made wrong decision.

Heston is an ass for his stands on guns, one of those 1%ers at the wrong end of the scale that things everyone should walk around with a pistol in a holster like the wild west. Moore owned his pathetic ass and he deserved every bit of it.

I have to admire your readiness to prove that my comment went so far over your head that you had no idea what I was talking about.

I think Michael Moore is great! He is right on many things.....after seeing Sicko i feel like moving to Canada or Europe :-)