Mike Moore and the 56 Lies
That's supposed to be funny cuz it's supposed to be like Ali Babba and the 40 Thieves. I know it isn't funny. Anyhoo, this site I just found is fantastic. It painstakingly and deliberately itemizes 59 misleading and/or false things in Fahrenheit 9/11. Here's the address: http://www.davekopel.com/Terror/Fiftysix-Deceits-in- Fahrenheit-911.htm The site is very long and I don't recommend reading it in one day so once and awhile I'll summarize a deception or two in Moore's new movie.
Deception #1: In the opening scene of the movie, Gore is celebrating his electoral victory in Florida with celebrities thus assuring his Presidential victory.
Facts: The rally did take place on Election Day 2000 however it took place before the sun rose in the early morning. It was Gore's last campaign stop before returning to his home state of Tennessee to observe the results of the election. This article proves this to be the case: http://www.evote.com/News/EV11072000E.html (Since when is Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian from Star Wars) a celebrity?)
Conclusion: Moore seems to flat out lie when it comes to things that aren't that important to the point of the movie. Is the fact that he misleads the viewer about when the rally took place by narrating as if it was a post-election party all that important? Not really, but it isn't a good way to start a documentary if you ask me.
Deception #2: Continuing with the Election 2000 portion of F 9/11, Moore states that news stations across the country called Florida for Gore, then Fox News called Florida for Bush thus inducing every other station to call Florida for Bush
Facts: NBC called Florida for Gore at 7:49 and CBS followed shorty thereafter. Fox called Florida for Gore at 7:52 and ABC called it for Gore at 8:02. Moore fails to mention that Fox News (the most conservative or least liberal station, in my opinion) even called Florida for Gore. He also fails to mention that EVERY station uses the same data to "call" states. At about 10 PM CBS and CNN were the first stations that retracted Florida for Gore and "called" it as undecided. Fox did not take Florida from Gore until 2 AM, 4 hours after CBS and CNN. Fox then called Florida for Bush at 2:16 followed by the other networks who all called Florida for Bush by 2:20.
Moore asserts that all the other news stations followed Fox because they were Fox. This despite the fact that all stations had different owners all of which are big competitors in the world of multimedia (Viacom, Disney, NewsCorp, AOL Time Warner, General Electric). Furthermore, Fox was 4th to call Florida for Gore, 3rd to retract Florida and then 1st to give Florida to Bush. So how come the networks followed Fox only one times out of three? Because they didn't follow Fox!
Another fact that is ignored in the whole Florida fiasco is that every station but ABC called Florida for Gore before Florida's polls had even closed! If anyone at Fox, CNN, NBC, or CBS had bothered to pay attention in geography class, they'd know that Florida's panhandle is in the Central time zone. Whereas most of Florida's polls closed at 7 EST, some remained open until 8 EST. Compounding this, stations declared that Florida's polls had been closed!
Florida's panhandle is very conservative (and also very close to Texas) and the ratio of conservatives to liberals is about 2:1. The effect of news stations declaring Florida for Gore and proclaiming Florida's polls to be closed may have cost Bush a net gain of 5,000 votes as this site claims: http://www.senate.gov/~gov_affairs/050301_Perrin.htm Such a massive swing negates the so-called hundreds of disenfranchised in the now infamous recounts in southern Florida's counties.
Conclusion: Moore never out and out lies in this segment of the movie, but he does pass over many facts that contradict his arguments. The fact that Fox was 4th then 3rd and then 1st (and wound up retracting Florida from Bush shortly after CBS eventually did) is neve rmentioned, just Fox's first in one of the many "calls" made on election night. Moore asserts a conservative conspiracy behind Fox deciding to change its call but even if this absurd Vast Right Wing conspiracy did exist, what effect would one news station changing a call at 2:16 AM do to swing the balance of power? Would that affect voting like the voting in Florida's panhandle was affected? I doubt it. Anyways, it should be intereting to see what happens in Florida in the upcoming election. If Kerry wins, then everyone on the left will say that Gore must have won Florida in 2000. If Bush wins, then the left will cry bloody murder and create claims of conspiracies once again. Remember folks, if a conservative does something that helps another conservative(s), then there MUST be a conspiracy. There's no other explanation.
The next few Deceits have to do with the 2000 Election and the continue throughout the movie.
Deception #1: In the opening scene of the movie, Gore is celebrating his electoral victory in Florida with celebrities thus assuring his Presidential victory.
Facts: The rally did take place on Election Day 2000 however it took place before the sun rose in the early morning. It was Gore's last campaign stop before returning to his home state of Tennessee to observe the results of the election. This article proves this to be the case: http://www.evote.com/News/EV11072000E.html (Since when is Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian from Star Wars) a celebrity?)
Conclusion: Moore seems to flat out lie when it comes to things that aren't that important to the point of the movie. Is the fact that he misleads the viewer about when the rally took place by narrating as if it was a post-election party all that important? Not really, but it isn't a good way to start a documentary if you ask me.
Deception #2: Continuing with the Election 2000 portion of F 9/11, Moore states that news stations across the country called Florida for Gore, then Fox News called Florida for Bush thus inducing every other station to call Florida for Bush
Facts: NBC called Florida for Gore at 7:49 and CBS followed shorty thereafter. Fox called Florida for Gore at 7:52 and ABC called it for Gore at 8:02. Moore fails to mention that Fox News (the most conservative or least liberal station, in my opinion) even called Florida for Gore. He also fails to mention that EVERY station uses the same data to "call" states. At about 10 PM CBS and CNN were the first stations that retracted Florida for Gore and "called" it as undecided. Fox did not take Florida from Gore until 2 AM, 4 hours after CBS and CNN. Fox then called Florida for Bush at 2:16 followed by the other networks who all called Florida for Bush by 2:20.
Moore asserts that all the other news stations followed Fox because they were Fox. This despite the fact that all stations had different owners all of which are big competitors in the world of multimedia (Viacom, Disney, NewsCorp, AOL Time Warner, General Electric). Furthermore, Fox was 4th to call Florida for Gore, 3rd to retract Florida and then 1st to give Florida to Bush. So how come the networks followed Fox only one times out of three? Because they didn't follow Fox!
Another fact that is ignored in the whole Florida fiasco is that every station but ABC called Florida for Gore before Florida's polls had even closed! If anyone at Fox, CNN, NBC, or CBS had bothered to pay attention in geography class, they'd know that Florida's panhandle is in the Central time zone. Whereas most of Florida's polls closed at 7 EST, some remained open until 8 EST. Compounding this, stations declared that Florida's polls had been closed!
Florida's panhandle is very conservative (and also very close to Texas) and the ratio of conservatives to liberals is about 2:1. The effect of news stations declaring Florida for Gore and proclaiming Florida's polls to be closed may have cost Bush a net gain of 5,000 votes as this site claims: http://www.senate.gov/~gov_affairs/050301_Perrin.htm Such a massive swing negates the so-called hundreds of disenfranchised in the now infamous recounts in southern Florida's counties.
Conclusion: Moore never out and out lies in this segment of the movie, but he does pass over many facts that contradict his arguments. The fact that Fox was 4th then 3rd and then 1st (and wound up retracting Florida from Bush shortly after CBS eventually did) is neve rmentioned, just Fox's first in one of the many "calls" made on election night. Moore asserts a conservative conspiracy behind Fox deciding to change its call but even if this absurd Vast Right Wing conspiracy did exist, what effect would one news station changing a call at 2:16 AM do to swing the balance of power? Would that affect voting like the voting in Florida's panhandle was affected? I doubt it. Anyways, it should be intereting to see what happens in Florida in the upcoming election. If Kerry wins, then everyone on the left will say that Gore must have won Florida in 2000. If Bush wins, then the left will cry bloody murder and create claims of conspiracies once again. Remember folks, if a conservative does something that helps another conservative(s), then there MUST be a conspiracy. There's no other explanation.
The next few Deceits have to do with the 2000 Election and the continue throughout the movie.
1 Comments:
Thank you for being another one to see the B.S. Come by and see what I ranted about the film. Thanx for the link.
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