(Michael) Moore alters "Bowling" DVD in response to criticism (& issues libel threat to his critics)

Spinsanity ^ | September 2, 2003 | Brendan Nyhan

[Timesink]

Moore alters "Bowling" DVD in response to criticism (9/2)

By Brendan Nyhan

In the newly-released DVD version of his Academy Award-winning documentary "Bowling for Columbine," filmmaker Michael Moore has altered a caption that he fictitiously inserted into a 1988 Bush-Quayle campaign commercial -- one of a number of misstatements and deceptive arguments we criticized when the film was released last year. Ironically, on the same day the DVD was released, Moore issued a libel threat against his critics on MSNBC's "Buchanan & Press," saying, "Every fact in the film is true. Absolutely every fact in the film is true. And anybody who says otherwise is committing an act of libel."

While we were among the first to call Moore on the inaccuracies in his film, most notably the alteration of the Bush-Quayle ad and his misleading presentation of US aid to Afghanistan in a timeline sequence, we were far from the only ones. Dan Lyons of Forbes Magazine also revealed several important lies or distortions, including the fact that the scene during which Moore receives a gun at a bank was staged. And David Hardy, an Arizona lawyer specializing in gun issues who has worked for the National Rifle Association, has compiled a voluminous list of allegations, including Moore's heavy and misleading editing of NRA President Charlton Heston's speech in Denver after the Columbine massacre.

Moore has generally refused to concede error in response to critics, in one case writing an angry email to Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert denouncing several charges as "Internet crap" and "not true." In subsequent correspondence for Ebert's online column, Moore wrote, "if I state something as a fact, I need the viewers to trust that those facts are correct."

While promoting the DVD release, he was asked about the charges by guest co-host Jerry Nachman during a August 19 appearance on "Buchanan & Press." Moore then attacked Hardy while accusing critics of libel:

NACHMAN: Michael, I want to start with what your critics chiefly say. And that is, while you criticize President Bush for being a fictitious president, as you called him, winning in a fictitious election, a lot of your critics say that your documentary should have been more like an Oliver Stone movie because of the liberties you took with chronology and facts in both "Roger and Me" and "Bowling for Columbine." You've heard that criticism, I'm sure.

MOORE: Well, yes. No, the NRA and some gun nut Web sites have really come after...

NACHMAN: Well, it's not...

MOORE: ... the film.

NACHMAN: ... it's not just gun nuts. I mean it's people who have tried to lay out a chronology of what you said happened...

MOORE: Like who?

NACHMAN: ... when it happened...

MOORE: Like who has done this...

NACHMAN: Well...

MOORE: ... that is not a conservative right-winger that has a vested interest in wanting to attack me instead of debating me on the issues I'm raising?

NACHMAN: This guy...

MOORE: Every fact in the film is true. Absolutely every fact in the film is true. And anybody who says otherwise is committing an act of libel.

However, the release of Moore's DVD proves otherwise. As we first documented, when "Bowling for Columbine" was released in theaters, it featured a 1988 Bush-Quayle ad called "Revolving Doors" (Real Player video), which criticized a prison furlough program in operation when Michael Dukakis was governor of Massachusetts. Though Horton was furloughed under the program in question, the ad did not explicitly mention him, unlike the more famous ad aired by the National Security Political Action Committee, which had close ties to Bush media advisor Roger Ailes.

But because this part of "Bowling" attempted to show how portrayals of black men are used to promote fear in the public, Moore apparently inserted the caption "Willie Horton released. Then kills again." into the ad, using a text style nearly identical to the ad's original captions. A casual viewer would assume that the text was part of the original ad. The fictitious caption more directly connecting Bush to Horton is used to back up Moore's statement, which runs over the sequence, that "whether you're a psychotic killer or running for president of the United States, the one thing you can always count on is white America's fear of the black man."

However, according to the archived video of the ad linked above, media reports and interviews with a high-level Dukakis official and political experts, the caption did not appear in the original ad. Moreover, it was incorrect -- Horton raped a woman while on furlough, but he did not commit murder.

In a tacit acknowledgment that the caption was both phony and factually incorrect, Moore has altered the text in the DVD version. The caption now reads "Willie Horton released. Then rapes a woman." Clearly, every fact in the film was not true, and critics who pointed the alteration of the Horton ad (among other things) were not committing libel.

Moreover, Moore's correction doesn't make the insertion of text that wasn't in the original ad any more excusable. And he has conspicuously failed to correct the rest of the film's distortions and inaccuracies. While it is too late for the Oscar voters he deceived, Moore still owes it to the public to set the record straight.

Addendum:
The DVD also contains further proof of Moore's tendency to stretch and distort the facts. Hardy has criticized Moore for claiming that the plaque at the US Air Force Academy near a B-52 on display "proudly proclaims that the plane killed Vietnamese people on Christmas Eve of 1972. It was the largest bombing campaign of the Vietnam War." This phrasing insinuates that the plaque praises the bombing of civilians. It actually says the B-52 "shot down a MIG northeast of Hanoi" on that date. The plaque does celebrate "the men and women of the Strategic Air Command who flew and maintained the B-52D throughout its 26 year history in the command," including "Aircraft 55,003, with over 15,000 flying hours," which presumably included bombing runs over Vietnam such as the one on Christmas Eve, but it does not "proudly" proclaim that it was used to kill Vietnamese civilians. According to Ebert, Moore's response to this criticism was as follows: "I was making a point about the carpet bombing of Vietnam during the 1972 Christmas offensive. I did not say exactly what the plaque said but was paraphrasing."

The DVD captures Moore exaggerating this still further, saying during a speech at the University of Denver on February 26, 2003 that the B-52 participated in the massive Christmas Eve bombing campaign. "And they've got a plaque on there proudly proclaiming that this bomber, this B-52, killed thousands upon thousands of Vietnamese -- innocent civilians." In both cases, his representation of the plaque is extremely dishonest.

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Related links:
-Forbes finds more falsehoods in Moore's "Bowling" (Ben Fritz, 11/25/02)
-Viewer beware (Ben Fritz, 11/19/02)
-Spinsanity on Michael Moore

9/1/2003 08:32:34 PM EST | [comments system is currently down]

[bushfamfan]

Sue him for libel. These liberals rely so much on lies to attack Republicans, conservatives and it needs to be pointed out repeatedly. Just like with Al Franken-claiming there's not one lie in his new autobiography 'Lies and the Lying Liars who tell them', I'm sure someone could document the lies in that one too-though it will take some time. They need to be called on it. Their friends in the media attempt to give them a free pass, but people who know enough to inform themselves learn what lengths those jerks go to.

[weegee]

BUMP FOR TRUTH

[Vigilantcitizen]

"Where is the right's equivelent of Moore and Franken? I rest my case."

I believe TLBSHOW was suspended and now posts on another forum.

[Helms]

Moore hides the serious question:

Is the United States becoming a nation of fledgling antisocials and psychopaths?

First of all, it should be made clear that antisocial behaviors and disorders are not just a symptom of American society, it is equally important to note its pandemic, tragic scope. Noda Masaaki, a psychopathologist from Japan, has commented on the latest rash of psychopathic murders in her country as being indicative of a “perpetrator. . .seeking a sense of magical omnipotence, a feeling of see what I can do!” She also adds that these murders have emerged from the 1980’s, a new type of murderer that “sees human life as something that can be turned on and off at will, just as in an electronic game or a horror video.” (Kaoru & Masaaki, 1997).

The mention of media influence is one of the most important factors in the rise of antisocial behavior. Video games and horror videos, as Masaaki mentioned, were also said to have influenced the Columbine killers. Studies have proven that video games are not only addictive but that children learn to emulate violence. Music with the wrong message, whether it’s Marilyn Manson, Thug Rap, or even Britney Spears, can also have a very dangerous influence on the morality and value system of impressionable young people, for instance, “nothing in the culture wars makes a stronger argument for the defense of conservative values than rap music.” (Fields, 1998)……………………….. http://www.geocities.com/lycium7/research.html

[aruanan]

"Every fact in the film is true. Absolutely every fact in the film is true. And anybody who says otherwise is committing an act of libel."

Well, of course, every fact is true. It's just that not everything that he calls a fact is indeed a fact. Did this guy even make it out of Spin 101?

[DoughtyOne]

So what you want about TBLSHOW, I don't think he lied about liberals from sunup to sundown.

[Vigilantcitizen]

"So what you want about TBLSHOW, I don't think he lied about liberals from sunup to sundown."

You're right. The joke was tasteless.

I apologize TLBSHOW.

[dirtboy]

"if I state something as a fact, I need the viewers to trust that those facts are correct."

Yep, because if folks start looking into those so-called facts, most of them will not stand up to scrutiny.

I doubt that Moore-on meant to be so self-revealing here.

[Alouette]

"Every fact in the film is true. Absolutely every fact in the film is true. And anybody who says otherwise is committing an act of libel."

The definition of "fact" is that it is something which is true. However the film contains many falsehoods. Pointing this out is not "libel" because truth is an absolute defense against libel.

[atomic conspiracy]

Among adolescents, it is commonly thought that lying by implication, innuendo, half-truth, and omission is not lying at all. Of course, these things are lying and Moore's denials simply identify him further as a reckless and juvenile propagandist, appealing primarily to a kind of facetious and debased notion of wit that has its origin in the well-tried techniques of exploiting a gullible audience for commericial gain. It is the equivalent of sticking your tongue out at the teacher when her back is turned.

Moore is probably in it for the money and power, but his work is literal hate-speech, inspiring bigotry and support for terrorism all over the world. The problem comes from the relative credibility assigned to Moore, especially outside the United States. I don't believe that many Americans understand just how seriously this clownish figure is taken in other countries. In Australia, in particular, many regard Moore as the absolute and unimpeachable authority on all things American. His status among Oz leftists has to be seen to be believed, and the same is true to a lesser degree in my native Britain.

Contrary to popular belief, foreigners are generally less, not more, sophisticated in their response to media manipulation. This is reasonable considering that the US invented the saturation media and has had far longer to grow skeptical and cynical about it. The media themselves do not emphasize this, for a variety of reasons, one being the age-old preference of status-seekers for the foreign and seemingly exotic.

[headsonpikes]

Michael Moore...dishonest?

Please, say it ain't so!

[DoughtyOne]

Sorry about that. It was supposed to start out, "Say what you want..." Sheesh. I realized you were attempting some humor there. ;-)

[Vigilantcitizen]

"Sorry about that. It was supposed to start out, "Say what you want..." Sheesh. I realized you were attempting some humor there. ;-)"

; ^ )>

[atomic conspiracy]

"if I state something as a fact, I need the viewers to trust that those facts are correct."

He needs to be taken on authority. This is the entire left-wing propaganda paradigm in a nutshell. When dealing with lefties, always look for the appeal to authority and the presumption of personal authority. It is always there. It is an inherent weakness, one that flows naturally from the agenda being supported. Leftists can no more abandon authoritarian rhetoric than stockbrokers can ignore money. It is a fatal weakness if we just begin to exploit it.

[weegee]

Criswell says:

"Can you prove it didn't happen???"

[Itzlzha]

Somehow I doubt that Mr. Moron's bit of agitprop mentions that Albert Gore Junior was the first candidate to bring up Willie Horton (when he was competing for the Rat party nomination against Michael Dukakis).

Actually, it was Mr. Mafia Mario Cuomo who created and initialy used the Willie Horton angle...AlGore just picked it up and claimed he "invented it"...

[GulliverSwift]

"if I state something as a fact, I need the viewers to trust that those facts are correct."

Translation: If you don't believe every word that flows from my lipid-covered lips, you are a psychopath.

Sorry Mooreon. You can say you're right but until you can prove it with actual evidence, no one will believe you.