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An Open Letter to CNN
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 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.
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62 Comments so far
Show AllMICHAEL MOORE NEEDED CONTROVERSY TO SELL THIS MOVIE. CNN PROVIDED IT. YOU BOUGHT IT. HE GOES HOME RICH.
MIKE KICKS ASS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mike, I love Earthian's idea about running for Congress. Why not Michigan's 4th Congressional District where you have your film festival? The long time incumbent, Rep. Dave Camp is Republican rubber stamp for the Bush administration and he's never had any significant opposition since he came to Congress 16 years ago. He is now a millionaire whose stock portfolio has done well while he has taken millions in campaign contributions from corporations to do their bidding. We call him Duplicitous Dave because he pretends to be a moderate, while he votes with the right wingers. Rubber Stamp Camp needs to go and we need a Rep. Moore who represents people, not corporations in Congress.
Washington needs you, Mike.
johnboy, please find another progressive to take on Rubber Stamp Camp (best time in the world coming up to do that) and let Mike go being one of a kind instead of one out of 437. We all need him, not just Michigan's 4th Congressional District.
Moore: "You might have prevented a war...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. "
When Bush said he wanted to go to war with Iraq, and his lawyers (Gonzales) said that LEGALLY he didn't have to consult Congress (ie the people) about it since the original 1991 Gulf War Resolution still applied, that's when I knew he had NO INTENTION of 'fighting fair' to convince the people that the war was justified. As far as I'm concerned, from that point on the Media was justified in taking a critical view at ANYTHING the administration put forward in support of the war. That they didn't has always smelled fishy to me.
They are definitely CO-CONSPIRATORS!!!
MM vs. M$M
You know which side the moneyed will be on.
I stopped watching CNN a long time ago. I recommend others do the same. The network is a whore like the rest of them.
GGM, I'm with you. I check them for headlines real quick--which is something you can't even do with the FOX channel! But never listen to what they think is "in-depth" reporting. Ugh. What can I say. Mainstream Media are a part of our problems.
JH & others who have commented on "smooth delivery style": of course that's who gets the votes in this country. Why the hell do you think we elected Ronald Reagan (an actor) TWICE, after the good people of California had already enjoyed being f***ed in the @$$ by him, his cronies, and their policies? Why do you think Ollie North didn't get what was coming to him? B/c he looks smooth on TV. Michael Moore loses points with the shallow and easily manipulated every time he comes onscreen, b/c he looks like an average person, not a movie star.
And God bless him for his work. Also Robert Greenwald, Keith Olbermann, Bill Moyers, Al Gore, and every other high-profile media activist who is making waves and telling the truth. KEEP IT UP!!! WE ARE BEHIND YOU ALL THE WAY!!!
It may seem like whistling in the dark, but remember what Mohandas K. Gandhi said: "First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. THEN YOU WIN." Moore has definitely hit the "fighting" phase.
I have not seen Sicko, so I can't really comment on it. I do know that one glaring omission from all the discussion is the role that trial lawyers have played in making health care unaccessable. In my town, more than half of the ob's have closed their doors in the past 5 years due to outrageous malpractice premiums. 80% of the malpractice insurance companies in my state have either quite the market or closed. Doctors routinely order an incredible overkill of tests, just to cover their asses.( about 3-5% of doctors need their licenses revoked, I'm not saying REAL malpractice doesn't happen) It used to be that unsuccessful outcomes in health care were understood as bad luck or nature at work. Now it is a chance to cash in $$$$$$. Good old John Edwards comes to mind as part of the problem
As for Micheal Moore, he has made himself fabulously rich being "controversial". I doubt he'll kill this golden goose anytime soon.
Keep at it Michael, be CNN's, etc. worse nightmare. We need more like you.
redwriteman,
In Republican Rome (and even somewhat in Imperial Rome), the way that large and important matters would be decided in the Roman Senate was in this way. There would be two sides. Two senators would debate about the issue. Whoever sounded the most convincing, was the best public speaker, was most eloquent, etc etc, was the one who would "win" the debate and therefore their side would probably be the one of which most senators would vote in favor (this was done to a lesser extent in Athens during the 5th century BCE after the introduction of democracy). This was why rhetoric--the art of public speaking--was a required course for upper class, patrician noblemen during their formative years. If you were a rich patrician, you would one day be in the Senate, and thus needed to be able to argue effectively.
So the question is, what is wrong with this system? Well, it is obvious. It does not matter if that for which you are arguing is good or bad, right or wrong, as long as you argue it effectively. If George W. Bush could actually for once give us a good reason to be in Iraq and say it eloquently (basically if he got somebody else to say it), or maybe even argue it like one of those moronic pundits that plague 24-hour news stations (Bill O'Reilly I'm looking in your direction), then BAM! he wins. The fact that Michael Moore does not need to argue like a pundit or be in-your-face or be "smooth" is because he has the truth and morality on his side. I do not want to live in a progressive America in which morality prevails because it copied its opponent (essentially, the pseudo-religious corporate right-wing conservative quasi-dictatorship that is in power now).