By Brian Carnell

Monday, July 26, 2004

SpinSanity earlier this month released a nice analysis of some of the distortions present and inaccuracies present in Michael Moore's film "Fahrenheit 9/11."

One thing they point out is an error of omission regarding Moore's claims about the 2000 election. Moore uses a quote from CNN legal commentator Jeffrey Toobin that, "if there was a statewide recount, under every scenario, Gore won the election."

As Spinsanity, points out, however, a consortiums of Florida newspapers studied exactly that topic and found that the election outcome in the event of a recount would have depended on the method. If only "undervotes" (where people voted say Democrat in every single race except the President) had been included, then Bush would have won. If "overvotes" (where people voted for multiple candidates for president) had been included, then Gore would have won. In the CNN clip Moore features, CNN reporter Candy Crowley notes that Toobin's analysis assumes that "overvotes" would have been counted, which was not certain (and certainly would have been the subject of further litigation either way that decision had went).

To make his point more dramatic, Moore also includes a montage of different newspaper headlines asserting that Gore would have won a recount. One of those headlines reads "Latest Florida recount shows Gore won election."

There are a number of oddities about that headline, however. Screen grabs of the film from illegally available copies on the Internet, show that the headline is credited to the Pantagraph, a small Illinois paper.

Rather than actually show the actual paper from that day, the version show in "Fahrenheit 9/11" is a mock-up. The mock-up gets the date wrong, however, showing the headline appearing on December 19, 2001 when it actually appeared on December 5, 2001.

Moreover, the headline is not to a news story or analysis or even an editorial, but rather to a letter-to-the-editor.

Not surprisingly, the Pantagraph's Bill Flick notes that Moore has not returned its calls requesting a comment on this oddity.

Source:

Moore's flick: bowling for movie edits. Bill Flick, Pantagraph, July 23, 2004.

Fahrenheit 9/11: The temperature at which Michael Moore's pants burn. Brendan Nyhan, Spinsanity, July 2, 2004.

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