[HPFGU-OTChatter] Bowling for statistics

[Shaun Hately]

On 6 Aug 2003 at 2:32, Karen Cleary wrote:

> By way of doing a google search on the term "11,127" and some associated 
> keywords, such as firearms, I've located what I think may be the source 
> of source of Michael Moore's disputed statistic:
> Yeah, I know that that version of the report was updated after Michael 
> Moore's movie was shown at Cannes, but the part I quoted was surely 
> available in earlier versions of that report or in that report's 
> predecessor. Lumping "legal interventions" together with homicides 
> appears to be boilerplate from version to version. In any version, it is 
> an eminently reputable source, and I wouldn't fault anyone for using its 
> figures. Lies and damn lies not withstanding.

I'm going to see if I can check this out - my office should have 
available previous versions of the report, so I'll see if it appears in 
those. If it does, I'd be prepared to forgive Michael Moore on that 
point (although I would wonder why he's failed to answer continual 
requests asking him to cite the source - note that Vital Statistics is 
the source that somebody mentioned they thought Michael Moore might have 
used because the numbers matched and that was raised months ago) - but 
it would still leave his mistakes about German figures, and Australian 
figures. And it would still leave his editing together of unrelated 
speeches which leaves people with a false impression of what was really 
said. That's the thing I consider to the be the most disturbing thing in 
the film - it's just it's hard to say for certain if that was 
deliberately intended to mislead. Most people seeing the film come away 
with the impression they saw extracts from a particular speech - but it 
doesn't actually *say* they do.

> I'll confess that I still haven't seen the movie myself. But I love just 
> about everything Michael Moore has done that I have seen, and I'd take 
> his word, or come to think of it, just about anyone's, over that of John 
> Fund (the WSJ editorialist Sean cited) any day of the week. OK, I think 
> I'll leave it at that.

You should see it - if you like Moore's work, you will like this film. 
It's a nice piece of work. I just don't personally think it's worthy of 
an Oscar as a documentary.

Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that 
need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia