Michael Isikoff, Newsweek Deceive the Public About Fahrenheit 9/11

[CatWoman]

I know this is a gray area Mods -- please feel free to move if you deem this forum inappropriate for this story.

In the June 28, 2004 issue of Newsweek Magazine, Newsweek writer Michael Isikoff makes completely false and misleading statements about facts and issues contained in Fahrenheit 9/11. Isikoff has also gone on television shows repeating the charges.

Here are some of the falsehoods he is telling, and the truth:

Saudi Flights: Isikoff writes that "The movie claims that in the days after 9/11, when airspace was shut down, the White House approved special charter flights so that prominent Saudis - including members of the bin Laden family - could leave the country. Author Craig Unger appears, claiming that bin Laden family members were never interviewed by the FBI. Not true, according to a recent report from the 9/11 panel."

Isikoff's account of the movie is flatly untrue.

What the movie says is this: "It turns out that the White House approved planes to pick up the bin Ladens and numerous other Saudis. At least six private jets and nearly two dozen commercial planes carried the Saudis and the bin Ladens out of the U.S. after September 13th. In all, 142 Saudis, including 24 members of the bin Laden family, were allowed to leave the country."

These facts are based entirely on the findings contained in the 9/11 commission draft report, which states, "After the airspace reopened, six chartered flights with 142 people, mostly Saudi Arabian nationals, departed from the United States between September 14 and 24. One flight, the so-called Bin Ladin flight, departed the United States on September 20 with 26 passengers, most of them relatives of Usama Bin Ladin." National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, Threats and Responses in 2001, Staff Statement No. 10, The Saudi Flights, p. 12;

http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/f911facts/isikoff.php

[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. I don't trust Newsweek. It's newsmax tamed down for the....

public masses. Time is better, but The Nation is the best!!!

[The Zanti Regent]

6. Issikoff is a GOP Press Whore

Remember, Michael Issikoff is the same PRESSTITUTE who set up Monica and pocketed $600,000 for doing that.

Issikoff is a world class liar and a Nazi Press Whore.

F him

[young_at_heart]

2. Supposedly, Moore has backed up everything

He learned on Bowling For Columbine that he needs to have a ready response. I've heard several neo-cons stating flatly that Moore's film is full of "half-truths"..........what exactly IS a half-truth?

[gWbush is Mabus]

3. everything that has come out of the WH has been at best a half-truth

[Grown2Hate]

7. If ANYONE knows half truths, it's the neo-cons.

Eh... second though, better make that QUARTER truths. ;)

[Lin]

4. Sadly, I've come to expect that from Newsweek, certainly

expect it from Isikoff, anyone ever add up the hours he and SO many RW'ers and their faithful servents spent sniffing at Bill Clinton's crotch? arrrrrrrgh!

[sadiesworld]

5. If Moore has been as accurate as I think he's been...

SUE NOW. If Newsweek can get away with this, the talking heads will lie relentlessly.

OTOH, I would be afraid that a counterclaim might result in an injunction.

What to do? :shrug:

[Longhorn79]

8. So, the Newsweek lie is about Unger appearing?

and saying the FBI didn't interview the bin Ladens? The other part matches up. It seems easy to manipulate sentences, but flat out claiming that somebody appeared in the video and said something when they didn't is gonna get pounced on in a second.

[CatWoman]

9. also, see the linked story

and letter from Unger.

[DeepModem Mom]

10. Isikoff is most probably among reporters embarrassed...

because a chubby Everyman in a baseball cap has had to do their work for them. Isikoff is supposed to be not only a reporter, but an investigative reporter. Like Katie Couric, who we now learn appears (ditzily) in "F9ll," Isikoff must respond by undermining and/or savaging Moore. While he and most of the rest of the press sit on their fat wallets, and social-climb at DC cocktail parties, Moore digs and questions, and now reports the truth to the people. And what is the role of a free press in a democracy? It's what Moore is doing.