Wikileaks kicks Michael Moore in the nads.

[Ropey]

Another chuckle.

ty

 

[Ozmar]

Ya know, irony can be pretty ironic sometimes.

Moore: Hey, Cuba loved my movie! Hot Air

Michael Moore erupts in indignation today at Huffington Post over the reporting of a diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks that stated that Cuba had banned his film Sicko for its fantasy portrayal of the Cuban health-care system. Moore blasts the Guardian and other news agencies for releasing the contents of the message without checking to see whether it was actually true or not. Moore says that the Cuban government actually broadcast his film nationally four months after the message was apparently written, and had been praising it for months prior to that:

Via Huffing and Puffing (link available at HA):

Sounds convincing, eh?! There’s only one problem — the entire nation of Cuba was shown the film on national television on April 25, 2008! The Cubans embraced the film so much so it became one of those rare American movies that received a theatrical distribution in Cuba. I personally ensured that a 35mm print got to the Film Institute in Havana. Screenings of ‘Sicko’ were set up in towns all across the country. …

So what do you do with about a false “secret” cable, especially one that involves you and your movie? Well, you wait for a responsible newspaper to investigate and shout what it discovers from the rooftops.

But yesterday WikiLeaks gave the ‘Sicko’ Cuba cable to the media — and what did they do with it? They ran it as if it were true! Here’s the headline in the Guardian:

WikiLeaks: Cuba banned Sicko for depicting ‘mythical’ healthcare system

Authorities feared footage of gleaming hospital in Michael Moore’s Oscar-nominated film would provoke a popular backlash

And not one scintilla of digging to see if Cuba had actually banned the movie! In fact, just the opposite. The right wing press started to have a field day reporting a lie (Andy Levy of Fox – twice– Reason Magazine and Hot Air, plus a slew of blogs). Sadly, even BoingBoing and my friends at theNation wrote about it without skepticism. So here you have WikiLeaks, who have put themselves on the line to find and release these cables to the press — and traditional journalists are once again just too lazy to lift a finger, point and click their mouse to log into Nexis or search via Google, and look to see if Cuba really did “ban the film.”

Back to HA's Ed Morrissey:

Aw … you mean that journalists shouldn’t just release every piece information fed to them by leakers? That some diplomatic cables, when released indiscriminately, could result in unwarranted damage to reputations? That raw, confidential intelligence can sometimes be flat-out wrong? You don’t say!

You know who Moore should discuss this with, when he gets the chance? Julian Assange, and the rest of Assange’s apologists who have been insisting that Assange has been telling Truth to Power, and that he’s acting as a journalist in an era of radical transparency. After all, Moore just paid $20,000 to help bail out the man who published all of these cables, including the Sicko report that apparently was incorrect. Assange isn’t a journalist; he’s no better than a fence peddling stolen materials.

Now that Assange supporter Moore has learned that first-hand, he can dial back the sanctimony a bit, too.

As to the very last sentence, don't count on it.

WTF? Is this satire?

 

[trlrtrash13]

This is really a great story. I love it when Moore looks like even more of an ass than usual.

 

[editec]

The light got turned on in the kitchen and the all cockroaches are offended by it.

I find this all rather amusing.

 

[Ragnar]

WikiLeaks cables: Michael Moore film Sicko was 'not banned' in Cuba | World news | guardian.co.uk

Film-maker says diplomats made up the story to discredit film that showed healthcare was worse in US than Cuba

Yeah! That's the ticket!

The secret 2008 cable is based on reports from the USINT's foreign service health practitioner (FSHP) supposedly based on her conversations with local people, unauthorised visits to Cuban hospitals, and experience of helping USINT American and Cuban personnel access healthcare.

The cable describes a visit made by the FSHP to the Hermanos Ameijeiras hospital in October 2007. Built in 1982, the newly renovated hospital was used in Michael Moore's film as evidence of the high quality of healthcare available to all Cubans.

However, according to the FSHP, the only way a Cuban can get access to the hospital is through a bribe or contacts inside the hospital administration. "Cubans are reportedly very resentful that the best hospital in Havana is 'off-limits' to them," the memo reveals.

According to the FSHP, a more "accurate" view of the healthcare experience of Cubans can be seen at the Calixto García Hospital. "FSHP believes that if Michael Moore really wanted the 'same care as local Cubans', this is where he should have gone," the cable states.

A 2007 visit by the FSHP to this "dilapidated" hospital, built in the 1800s, was "reminiscent of a scene from some of the poorest countries in the world", the cable adds.

So, to discredit Moore (who has a long habit of discrediting himself) vested interest with big money and political insiders put out a secret memo? Nice try Mike.

Meanwhile: Julian Assange... "World's worst screw"?

Assange legal team cries foul over leaks from police investigation Hot Air

The man who heralds himself as the vanguard of radical transparency has finally found an opacity he can support — himself. Julian Assange’s legal team has demanded an investigation into the leak of documents from Sweden’s investigation of rape allegations after the Guardian reported on them over the weekend. This is, of course, a Schadenfreude-tastic moment — but shouldn’t take away from the seriousness of the issue (via Yid with Lid):

In a move that surprised many of Mr Assange’s closest supporters on Saturday, The Guardian newspaper published previously unseen police documents that accused Mr Assange in graphic detail of sexually assaulting two Swedish women. One witness is said to have stated: “Not only had it been the world’s worst screw, it had also been violent.”

Bjorn Hurtig, Mr Assange’s Swedish lawyer, said he would lodge a formal complaint to the authorities and ask them to investigate how such sensitive police material leaked into the public domain. “It is with great concern that I hear about this because it puts Julian and his defence in a bad position,” he told a colleague.