Last week's editorial on Michael Moore encouraged viewers to check the facts in his movie Fahrenheit 9/11 and seek out the truth of his movie instead of taking it at face value. As letters on this page show, some readers missed the point and pressed for the Future to give examples of errors in the film.
Early on, Moore distinctly says networks that called the 2000 election results repeated Gore as the Florida winner until FOX declared Bush the winner.
This is flat-out wrong. The first network to repeal the announcement of Gore's victory was CBS at 10 p.m. FOX didn't announce Gore's defeat in Florida until more than four hours later.
One of the biggest laughs in the film comes from a clip of George W. Bush espousing about terrorism and then hitting a golf ball. The insinuation is that Bush's mind is on golf instead of the terrorism acts of Sept. 11, 2001. Instead, Moore doesn't mention Bush was talking about a suicide bombing attack in Israel.
During an extended montage, Moore shows the Bush family being friendly with members of the Saudi royal family. Moore plays to a stereotype to make his point that this is an obviously scary connection. Bush's close relationship with Saudi Arabia's ambassador, Prince Bandar, is called into question. Yet, Bandar has been relied upon for advice in the past, including by Bill Clinton during his presidency.
Moore quotes Craig Unger saying the Saudis have invested $860 billion in America. Moore completely ignores that every other estimate of Saudi money in America is less than half the quoted amount - $420 billion.
Mocking other members of Bush's administration, Moore references John Ashcroft's loss of a senate race in Missouri to a dead man. Moore said people "preferred the dead guy." In reality, voters knew they weren't actually voting for the dead Mel Carnahan, they were voting for his widow. The Missouri governor promised to appoint Jean Carnahan if her husband won.
One of the most obvious distortions in the film is Moore's claim that Rep. Porter Goss doesn't really have an "800-number" for people to call to discuss problems with the Patriot Act. Moore then flashes Goss' regular line. Goss doesn't have a literal 1-800-number. He simply used the more common term for "toll-free number" - which Goss does have. That number, which can be found on the House of Representatives Web site, is 877-858-9040.
Another instance of Moore playing with the English language to mislead viewers is claiming Saddam Hussein's regime "never murdered a single American citizen." Moore admitted on ABC News that he chose the word "murdered" specifically to mean a premeditated, deliberate killing.
It is clear Hussein's regime has assisted in the deaths of American citizens - from funding suicide bombers in Israel to providing refuge to known terrorists. Hussein's regime was also responsible for plots to kill President George H.W. Bush., the American ambassador to the Philippines and Americans who worked in the US Information Service in Manila.
Moore likes to exclude pertinent information, banking on a stupid audience. He presents members of the "Coalition of the Willing" as insignificant, with comments like "Do they even have a military?" Moore purposefully leaves out powerful members of the coalition like England, Spain, Italy and Australia
Moore also says "only one" congressman has a child in Iraq. This may be literally true, but still a misleading fact. The "only one" is probably referring to the son of Rep. Duncan Hunter who is currently serving in Iraq. However, Sen. Tim Johnson's son just recently ended his military tour in Iraq. Sen. Joseph Biden's son quit his job shortly after 9/11 to join the military, but is not currently serving in Iraq.
One quoted senator that Moore speaks to, Rep. Mark Kennedy, is seen in Fahrenheit 9/11 as rebuffing Moore. However, as published on Moore's Web site, Kennedy actually agreed to help Moore by passing out the information to other members of Congress.
There are more inaccuracies and misleading statements in Moore's movie. That doesn't mean it's not a valuable experience for those interested in politics and government. But the information presented is done so with a predetermined agenda, and Moore makes clever cuts and deliberate wording to make the bad truth of the state of the nation seem much worse.
He may actually hurt his cause by not being entirely truthful.
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