Michael Moore returns to CNN Today

From Moore's "An Open Letter to 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.

If that wasn't bad enough, just look at this appearance by Michael on Olbermann's Countdown.

Olbermann interviews Michael Moore.

Full Transcript

MOORE: Thank you. and I just want to say that Dr. Gupta phoned in a prescription for me after that encounter.

OLBERMANN: I‘m not going to ask for what. But seriously, Wolf Blitzer‘s beard looked like it was about to molt during that encounter. You were really ticked off. Did you get—you got this apocryphal prescription. Did you get an apology for that CNN report on the movie that made you so angry?

MOORE: No, and I‘m still waiting for it and frankly, I‘m not going to give up until I get one. They are the most trusted name in news, as you might have heard. And so their report was filled with so many inaccuracies, I have all of the evidence and the facts up on my website. Anybody can go and see where they were wrong. And I‘m going to wait.

When this all originally went down, people like Bully O'Leilly proclaimed that Moore was "having a meltdown." ala Rosie O'Donnell's final appearance on "The View."

Yet even after all this, amazingly, Michael Moore is scheduled to again appear on CNN today?

How?

Well, it appears, to put it simply - CNN finally Caved and Told The Truth!.

The mighty CNN, in a lengthy and sad online defense of their woe-begotten 'Sicko' story of last Monday, has admitted that they did indeed fudge at least two of the facts in their coverage of my film and have apologized for it:

1. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN: "To be clear, I got a number wrong in my original report, substituting the number 25, instead of 251." -- My Conversation with Michael Moore, July 11th, 2007; and

2. CNN: "Moore is correct. Paul Keckley left Vanderbilt in late 2006." -- CNN's Response to Michael Moore, July 15th, 2007.

Furthermore, CNN confirmed that all of our statistics in "Sicko" are the correct numbers from the sources we cited. Although CNN still prefers to use older World Health Organization statistics, we will stick to using this year's Bush administration stats and more recent U.N. data. (In "Sicko," we consistently use only U.N. Human Development Statistics unless it's for studies they don't do or have recent numbers for.) CNN did apologize for these two factual errors, but no apology seems to be coming for the rest of their errors. These days, to get the mainstream media to admit they were wrong is rare; to get them to admit it twice, as they have with "Sicko," I guess should be considered a whopping victory. Will they eventually apologize for the rest, or for their reporting on the war? Will the Cubs win the World Series this year?

Somehow I'm not so sure about those Cubs.

But it has to be admitted that getting even these concessions from CNN have indeed been a victory. Just look at the how Judy Miller, still to this day refuses to take any responsibility for her shoddy reporting on WMDS, or how David Brooks is fawning over George W. Bush's "self-confidence and resolve" like a love-sick schoolgirl.

The one point which Michael has asserted from the very beginning is that the MSM has repeatedly failed in it's obligations to genuinely be objective and more importantly accurately inform the public.

If CNN had devoted even one-tenth as much of an effort to questioning whether WMD existed in Iraq prior to the Bush invasion as it has arguing about the facts in 'SiCKO,' the public would have been much better served. If CNN devoted more time discussing the central themes of 'SiCKO' instead of creating distractions, the public would have been much better served.

Amen.

Last night and this morning the Democrats have engaged in a all-night Filibuster Fight against Republicans (who not long ago threatened to implement the "The Nuclear Option" to eradicate filibusters) over the Iraq War. Just minutes ago the Cloture Vote for Levin/Reed Failed. Has CNN accurately covered this battle?

Just like the Cub's chances, I doubt it.

But with small forward steps such as this one with Moore, I don't think it's too much to entertain a bit of hope that if you make a big enough stink, you might see some progress.

Just a tad.

Vyan