Moore Facts? by Jeffrey J. Jackson (7/14/04)

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*Author's Note: This is the first part of a multipart exposure of Michael Moore's lies hidden around nuggets of truth. Mr. Moore attempts to post a "Fact Sheet" on his website to debunk critics of his "documentary" While many of the items are indeed truthful, they are not true in the way Mr. Moore attempts to portray them. So without further delay here is Part 1...

Liberals left think that because Michael Moore posts a “fact” sheet on his site that therefore criticism that he is a liar is unfounded, right-wing, hate mongering. So what exactly is a lie? According to Webster’s dictionary, the word is defined as “1 : to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive” or “2 : to create a false or misleading impression”.

Are some of the things that Moore lists on his “fact” sheet true? Yes. Can you lie while telling the truth as well? Yes. Right now, liberals are trying to stop their heads from spinning at that statement. But they do it and know it is true. As liberals parroted the line the Bush said “the threat is imminent” with regards to Iraq, they did exactly what I said above.

Bush did indeed say the words “the threat is imminent” when talking about Iraq. However he did not say that Iraq was an “imminent” threat. His exact quote was "Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they strike?" - President George Bush (January 2003, State of the Union)

Hence, a true statement is turned into a lie. Putting the words “the threat is imminent” into context changes the meaning of the words. Yes, President Bush did say those words, however he did not say that Iraq was an imminent threat. This is definition #2 of a lie, which is “to create a false or misleading impression”.

So let’s begin by putting Michael Moore’s latest “documentary” into perspective. Who is Michael Moore?

"We live in the time where we have fictitious election results that elects a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons. Whether it's the fictition of duct tape or fictition of orange alerts we are against this war, President Bush. hame on you. President Bush, shame on you. And any time you got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up." --Michael Moore, in his 2003 Academy Awards acceptance speech

"I forgot out there on the stage to thank my cast. So if I could do that now, I want to thank President Bush, Mr. Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz and Donald Rumsfeld. I thought the love scene between Cheney and Rumsfeld brought a tear to my eye." --Michael Moore, on "Fahrenheit 9/11"

"I would like to apologize for referring to George W. Bush as a 'deserter.' What I meant to say is that George W. Bush is a deserter, an election thief, a drunk driver, a WMD liar, and a functional illiterate. And he poops his pants" --Michael Moore

"The majority of Americans -- the ones who never elected you -- are not fooled by your weapons of mass distraction." --Michael Moore

"You know he's [George W. Bush] there illegally. You know he was not elected either by the popular vote or by the vote in Florida." --Michael Moore

"If someone did this [9/11] to get back at Bush, then they did so by killing thousands of people who DID NOT VOTE for him! Boston, New York, D.C., and the planes' destination of California -- these were places that voted AGAINST Bush!" --Michael Moore

"The majority of Americans -- the ones who never elected you -- are not fooled by your weapons of mass distraction." --Michael Moore

"These bastards who run our country are a bunch of conniving, thieving, smug pricks who need to be brought down and removed and replaced with a whole new system that we control." --Michael Moore, writing in "Dude, Where's My Country?"

These quotes help us understand Moore’s perspective of events since the 2000 election and we can see certain key beliefs.

1) George Bush was not elected President and stole the election.
2) As an illegitimate President he should be the source of anger and disdain for any patriotic American.
3) That President Bush is a liar.
4) That 9/11 was to get even with George Bush and that because of that George Bush is responsible.
5) That the War on terror is illegitimate.
6) That the War in Iraq is illegitimate.

Now, from here on out we also have to make an assumption. That assumption is that Michael Moore is not a schizophrenic and that if he made a movie he wouldn’t contradict his own personal beliefs. That makes sense after all. Because if the movie he made contradicted what he claims to know to be true then it would not be a “documentary” as Michael Moore claims, but rather a work of fiction.

So, armed with this knowledge, let’s begin with Mr. Moore’s “facts”.

“Fox was the first network to call Florida for Bush. Before that, some other networks had called Florida for Gore, and they changed after Fox called it for Bush.”

Why is it presented: To support Moore’s belief that Bush is an illegitimate President.

Truth: FOX was the first network who’s anchors said this first followed closely by NBC (Moore’s OWN source verifies this by the way). All election results came from VNS which is not owned by Fox. At the time Fox made the “call” all networks had the exact same information and that was with 99% of the vote counted, George Bush was ahead.

It is a true statement put forth to provide a “link” that Bush is illegitimate and thus falls under definition 2 of a lie. The fact that a FOX anchor said Bush won Florida first does not support Moore’s contention that Bush is an illegitimate President.

“The man who was in charge of the decision desk at FOX on election night was Bush’s first cousin, John Ellis.”

Why it is presented: To support Moore’s belief that Bush is an illegitimate President.

FACT: It is a true statement. However, once again, it doesn’t fall into the category of supporting the reason it was given. The fact that a cousin of George Bush was at the desk does not invalidate the information provided from VNS or the fact that after all recounts, Bush still won Florida.

Michael Moore is attempting here to show that somehow Bush manipulated the election through his cousin. This patently false because this cousin does not count votes and this call was made at 2:16AM after all polls were closed so no one seeing it would have decided not to vote because Bush already won the state.

It is a true statement put forth to provide a “link” that Bush is illegitimate and thus falls under definition 2 of a lie

“Make sure the chairman of your campaign is also the vote countin’ woman and that her state has hired a company that’s gonna knock voters off the rolls who aren’t likely to vote for you. You can usually tell them by the color of their skin.”

Why it is presented: : To support Moore’s belief that Bush is an illegitimate President.

FACT Katherine Harris does not “count” votes. She certifies them. The counting was done by Boca Raton-based Database Technologies Inc a subsidiary of ChoicePoint. Michael Moore tries to show shady dealings by citing that “In 1997, Rick Rozar, the late head of the company bought by ChoicePoint, donated $100,000 to the Republican National Committee.”

Problem is that this is 2000 now. There was no “evidence” presented by Mr. Moore that there was any backroom dealing between the President and the vote counters. In fact in 2001 the New York Times, Washington Post, and others all conducted their own recounts independent of this company and their conclusion?

George Bush won. This is an example of definition 1: “to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive”

So far, Moore is 0/3 with a 0% accuracy on his “fact” sheet.

“Gore got the most votes in 2000.”

Why it is presented: To support Moore’s belief that Bush is an illegitimate President.

FACT: Moore presents the report found at http://www.aei.org/docLib/20040526_KeatingPaper.pdf as proof, citing table 1 that Gore won. The Fact is however that if you look at EACH result in which Gore would have won was the result of rewriting the election rules to get such a result. By the way, this is illegal to do. Yes, Gore would have won Florida IF it were legal to change the law after the fact to obtain the outcome that Mr. Moore wanted. However you cannot do this.

You cannot change the rules just so that you will win.

Moore is contradicted by his own sources on this one again: ““The review found that the result would have been different if every canvassing board in every county had examined every undervote, a situation that no election or court authority had ordered. Gore had called for such a statewide manual recount if Bush would agree, but Bush rejected the idea and there was no mechanism in place to conduct one.” Martin Merzer, “Review of Ballots Finds Bush's Win Would Have Endured Manual Recount,” Miami Herald, April 4, 2001.”

So this is definition 2: “to create a false or misleading impression”.

“Congressional Black Caucus members tried to object to the election outcome on the floor of the House; no Senator would sign the objections.”

Why it is presented: To support Moore’s belief that Bush is an illegitimate President.

FACT: The fact that CBC members objected on the floor does not prove this contention. It proves that there were some people that did not like the results under agreed to election laws and tried to go back and change the results. This statement while true is presented to give a false impression, hence definition #2 of a lie “to create a false or misleading impression”.

“On the day George W. Bush was inaugurated, tens of thousands of Americans poured into the streets of D.C. They pelted Bush’s limo with eggs.”

Why it is presented: To support Moore’s belief that Bush is an illegitimate President.

FACT: Another true statement but out of context. The fact that President Bush was met with protestors does not in anyway show that he was an “illegitimate” President, only that some people did not like the results of the election.

This statement while true is presented to give a false impression, hence definition #2 of a lie “to create a false or misleading impression”.

“The inauguration parade was brought to a halt and the traditional walk to the White House was scrapped.”

Why it is presented: To support Moore’s belief that Bush is an illegitimate President.

FACT: Another true statement but out of context. The fact that President Bush was met with protestors does not in anyway show that he was an “illegitimate” President, only that some people did not like the results of the election.

This statement while true is presented to give a false impression, hence definition #2 of a lie “to create a false or misleading impression”.

“For the next eight months, it didn’t get any better for George W. Bush.”

Why it is presented: To support Moore’s belief that Bush is an illegitimate President.

FACT: “Better” is a subjective term. Moore concludes that a President who won the election by a squeaky margin and who sits at “50 percent” approval rating has problems. He also attempts to cite that because the California voters were faced with rolling black outs (not Bush’s fault FYI) that this somehow supports this contention.

(To be continued in Part 2)

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