Newspaper upset with Michael Moore
Says director created a doctored front page for ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’
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updated 7:02 p.m. CT, Sun., Aug 1, 2004
- Filmmaker Michael Moore’s Bush-basing documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11” has apparently upset more than Republicans.
The Pantagraph newspaper in Bloomington said Friday it sent a letter to Moore and the film’s distributor, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., asking for an apology for using what it said was a doctored front page in his movie.
The paper is seeking $1 in damages.
A scene early in the movie shows newspaper headlines related to the contested 2000 presidential election. It includes a shot of The Pantagraph’s Dec. 19, 2001, front page, with the prominent headline, “Latest Florida recount shows Gore won election.”
The newspaper says that headline never appeared on that day.
The paper said the headline appeared in a Dec. 5, 2001, edition but was not used on the front page. Instead, it was found in much smaller type above a letter to the editor, which the paper says reflects “only the opinions of the letter writer.”
“If (Moore) wants to ‘edit’ The Pantagraph, he should apply for a copy-editing job,” the paper said.
Neither Lions Gate nor Moore were immediately available for comment Sunday.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5575561/Bowling for Headlines: How Fictitious is Michael Moore's 'Fahrenheit 9/11'?
Shoots from the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii - Aug. 10, 2004
By Stuart K. Hayashi, 8/10/2004 12:03:36 AM
Stuart Hayashi
Filmmaker Michael Moore first gained renown with his 1989 documentary "Roger & Me." It focuses on General Motors closing its Flint, Michigan, plants to cut costs. Decrying this as cruelty, Moore videotapes himself following G.M.'s then-CEO Roger Smith around, trying to interview him about the layoffs. Smith only evades him.
But now Moore is the powerful multimillionaire corporate fat-cat who hates being confronted over his own company's shadiness, and I'm the young rebel who questions his business's conduct.
A Friday, July 30 Associated Press story says that the "Bloomington, IL, Pantagraph" newspaper accuses Moore's latest movie, "Fahrenheit 9/11," of taking a Letter to the Editor from its December 5, 2001 edition, and then showing a doctored version of it in the documentary's pre-title sequence.
The film version changes the date to Dec. 19, 2001, alters the typesetting, and blows up the letter's title -- "Latest Florida recount shows Gore won election" -- so that it now looks like a straight news article reflecting the paper's official position.
Naturally, the "article" was shown when Moore's voice-over narration asserted Al Gore definitely received more Florida votes than Bush in the 2000 election.
Consequently, the Pantagraph demands an apology and explanation from Moore, and it's seeking damages of . . . $1. It's the principle that counts.
The Pantagraph probably would've taken such actions even if I never got involved in this controversy. However, I *DID* help get the photographic evidence of the Pantagraph's claims onto the Internet.
In his July 23, 2004 column at
http://tinyurl.com/6a24q "Pantagraph" columnist Bill Flick first broke the news of the headline enlargement. His column included MooreWatch.com writer Jim Kenefick's screenshot of the letter as it appeared in the film, but no picture of the authentic Dec. 5 version.
I emailed Flick and asked him if the Pantagraph could place a picture of the original "Gore won" letter onto its website. So he put me into contact with a Bloomington librarian who had a copy of the original letter's page on microfilm.
After we exchanged emails, the librarian agreed to my suggestion that she fax a photograph of the original letter to MooreWatch.com.
So on Monday, July 26, MooreWatch posted
http://tinyurl.com/5tspp to show photographs of both the real letter and the altered cinematic incarnation.
The URL I just provided is more important than anything else I've written here, because it shows if the Pantagraph is correct or not.
Thanks to these pictures, you don't have to take anyone's word for it. See for yourself.
To see a larger image of the real letter at that URL, click on it. A second window will open, wherein you can further magnify the image.
MooreWatch.com received the faxed image in three parts, so it had to assemble them into one piece with Adobe Photoshop. It also highlighted the letter in yellow. Other than that, MooreWatch made no changes to the image of the real page.
I don't know for a fact if Moore himself was aware that an altered headline appeared in "Fahrenheit 9/11" or if this implies something about the veracity of the documentary's other theses. I only know that the version from Moore's masterpiece looks nothing like the actual one.
And I believe Moore owes an honest explanation to everyone who's seen his opus.
As a result of my helping MooreWatch expose the discrepancy, Jason Clarke, a coauthor of the New York Times bestseller "Michael Moore Is a Big Fat Stupid White Man," invited me to write about this incident on his famous website
http://www.moorelies.com -- a site mentioned in the July 9 "Entertainment Weekly."
http://tinyurl.com/64jjw displays my MooreLies post.
The aforementioned "Entertainment Weekly" issue contained an interview with Moore in which he says that he "hired the former chief counsel and head of fact-checking at The New Yorker and then she brought in some fact-checkers" to verify "Fahrenheit 9/11"'s accuracy.
Moore then states, "I said tear the movie apart and find something wrong with it."
I wouldn't have known of this strangeness myself if it weren't for MooreWatch's coverage of it, but perhaps Moore's fact-checkers didn't do their job well enough.
"I don't get sued," Moore also said, "because my facts are correct."
Whoops!
Moore famously declared in his 2003 Oscar speech, "We live in the time where we have fictitious election results that elects a fictitious president."
Ironically, "Fahrenheit 9/11" supports that accusation with a seemingly fictitious document.
Figure 1: The version that appears in "Fahrenheit 9/11"
Caption: Note that it says "The Pantagraph" in the upper left-hand corner and the date is double-digit. Magnified, it looks like Wednesday, December 19, 2001 (see
http://tinyurl.com/6a24q for a larger view of the date).
Figure 2: The actual "Pantagraph" page on which the letter to the editor, "Latest Florida recount shows Gore won election," was printed
Caption: MooreWatch.Com highlighted the real letter in yellow. Go to
http://tinyurl.com/4vco9 for a larger, clearer view of it. In the upper left-hand corner, it says "The Pantagraph" and then "Wednesday, December 5, 2001." Note that the date is clearly single-digit.
Stuart K. Hayashi is Policy Analyst at the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii. Hayashi is the founder of a news Web log, "The Fiftieth Star," at:
http://50thstar.blogspot.com to be unofficially centered around activities at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. His older editorials can be seen at:
http://reason_club.tripod.com/stuart_editorials.html and he can be reached at: mailto:radical_individualist@hotmail.com
Links pertinent to this story (I have tried to keep this in chronological order, with the earliest stories at the top):
A screenshot of the "Bloomington Pantagraph" letter in question, as it appears in "Fahrenheit 9/11" (this photo was not taken by anyone who blogged for MooreWatch.com)
http://tinyurl.com/47md2Bill Flick of the "Bloomington Pantagraph" reveals the nature of how the headline was distorted (includes MooreWatch's screenshot of the film version of the letter) -- Friday, July 23, 2004
http://tinyurl.com/6a24qThe photograph evidence of the headline being doctored for "Fahrenheit 9/11" -- Monday, July 26, 2004
http://tinyurl.com/5tsppA larger picture of the real Letter to the Editor -- Monday, July 26, 2004
http://tinyurl.com/4vco9The "Bloomington Pantagraph" announces that it is seeking legal action -- Friday, July 30, 2004
http://tinyurl.com/4j23kThe Associated Press story -- Friday, July 30, 2004
http://tinyurl.com/3wukr (This appeared in the Monday, August 2, 2004 edition of the Honolulu Advertiser on page A4, under the heading "Fraud Alleged in 'Fahrenheit 9/11.'"
My post on this subject on a New York Times bestselling author's website -- Friday, July 30, 2004
http://tinyurl.com/64jjwOther charges made against Michael Moore's films (this is no longer in chronological order):
The Corpse Confession;
http://tinyurl.com/6qxnpBush looking dumb as he says, "Now watch this drive!" on the golf course;
http://tinyurl.com/3mtl5How "Bowling for Columbine" spliced two old political campaign ads together to look like one, and then added its own caption without telling the viewer;
http://tinyurl.com/484ezWas Michael Moore's confrontation with Charlton Heston staged?;
http://tinyurl.com/58spe (see the RealPlayer clip of the film to confirm the charge that the author of that web article is making);
http://tinyurl.com/3v3etThe misleading editing of Charlton Heston's NRA speeches;
http://tinyurl.com/3he7eThe staged bank scene from "Bowling for Columbine";
http://tinyurl.com/28s67The fudging of the chronology of events in "Roger & Me";
http://tinyurl.com/4yoqp (the late Pauline Kael took Moore at his word when he said he's from the working-class Flint, Michigan; evidence suggests grew up in the upper-middle-class suburb near Flint: Davison, Michigan);
http://tinyurl.com/57yjgThe shocking secret about the central plot premise of "Roger & Me";
http://tinyurl.com/4sz6g ;
http://tinyurl.com/664ssAttorney and New York Times bestselling author David T. Hardy's comprehensive refutation of "Bowling for Columbine";
http://tinyurl.com/81kuOther links:
Michael Moore's home page;
http://www.michaelmoore.comHelpful resources for keeping track of information about Moore and the validity of his films;
http://www.moorelies.com ;
http://www.moorewatch.com ;
http://www.bowlingfortruth.com"Fifty-Nine Deceits in 'Fahrenheit 9/11'" by David B. Kopel;
http://tinyurl.com/28hjyMichael Moore's 2003 Oscar speech;
http://tinyurl.com/4muxgAn upcoming documentary that counters Michael Moore's propaganda;
http://tinyurl.com/6uqmsThis editorial is intended to provoke thought, discussion and an examination of issues. It does not reflect official policy of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii. See the GRIH Web site at:
http://www.grassrootinstitute.org/HawaiiReporter.com reports the real news, and prints all editorials submitted, even if they do not represent the viewpoint of the editors, as long as they are written clearly. Send editorials to mailto:Malia@HawaiiReporter.com