Moore Makes CNN Blush
July 21, 2007
Earlier I had posted a story about CNN’s attempt to ambush Michael Moore, which backfired when the Sicko director turned the tables on the host and asked the channel to apologize for its misleading pro-war coverage. CNN’s woes have only multiplied as now it has had to apologize for fudging the facts (what Moore had been accused of by the channel’s Sanjay Gupta, incidentally) in its smearing of Moore. CTV’s Constance Dragones reports: (Thanks Dave)
After a much publicized tête-à-tête between Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent, and the outspoken director of “Sicko,” the network released a rare statement of apology. In it they owned up to two errors made while reporting on Moore’s new documentary.
On his website on July 17th, the vindicated Moore was pleased about two things. Paris Hilton and her sister passed on clubbing and cruising down the strip to see “Sicko.” Second, you guessed it, it was CNN eating crow that finally returned his good humour.
“CNN confirmed that all our statistics in “Sicko” are the correct numbers from the sources we cited,” Moore writes. “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 UN data. (In “Sicko,” we consistently use only UN Human Development Statistics unless it’s for studies they don’t do or have recent numbers for.”
Moore gives CNN its due for admitting their two errors. Yet to date the Flint, Michigan native has received no apologies for the other mistakes he believes the network made.
“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.”
Moore’s beef with CNN first began during a July 9 interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
Prior to that segment, the show played a fact-check piece on “Sicko” by Dr. Gupta. That report led to a contentious exchange between Moore and Blitzer. It also fueled Moore’s ire further on July 10, when he and Gupta butted heads on CNN’s Larry King Live.
When asked by King why he took such exception to Gupta’s piece, Moore replied, “He said the facts were fudged. That’s a lie.”
In Gupta’s original piece he refuted figures Moore presented regarding Cuba’s per capita spending on healthcare. Gupta alleged that the $251 per person cost reported by Moore was untrue.
Yet on “Larry King Live” Gupta admitted the error was his, not Moore’s. “Michael correctly said $251 in the movie.”
Gupta also made a correction statement on July 11.
“To be clear, I got a number wrong in my original report, substituting the number 25, instead of 251.”
Another CNN correction followed on July 15 concerning the credentials of “Sicko” healthcare expert Paul Keckley. Gupta asserted that Keckley, whom he had quoted criticizing the national healthcare systems of France, Canada and Cuba during his fact check piece, was only affiliated with Vanderbilt University. It was his response to Moore’s claim the Keckley was “a person from a think tank group who is a big Republican contributor.”
Gupta’s fact check piece listed Keckley as a “Deloitte Healthcare Expert.” Yet further checking revealed Keckley had, indeed, served on the faculty of Vanderbilt University. He is also the executive director of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions.
Moore must have been beaming as he read CNN’s apology: “Moore is correct. Paul Keckley left Vanderbilt in late 2006.” …
Moore has even accepted Blitzer’s invitation to return to his show
“I’m not expecting a dozen roses or make-up sex — I only want a promise that there will be no more distorted distractions so we can have a decent discussion about the REAL issue, like why 18,000 American die every year because they don’t have a health insurance card.
