CNN versus Michael Moore

I can say i saw it all … FUD tactics on CNN. After putting on air a report with false data about the facts presented in Sicko movie, CNN admitted that they were wrong. And it’s not the first time when this happens. What is FUD ? FUD sands for Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt. It is a marketing technique used when a competitor launches a product that is both better than yours and costs less, i.e. your product is no longer competitive. Unable to respond with hard facts, scare-mongering is used via ‘gossip channels’ to cast a shadow of doubt over the competitors offerings and make people think twice before using it. In general it is used by companies with a large market share, and the overall message is ‘Hey, it could be risky going down that road, stick with us and you are with the crowd. Our next soon-to-be-released version will be better than that anyway’.

Those of you that watches CNN knows about the the show named “Situation Room”. Well , after the movie Sicko was launched it was a show where the CNN’s “chief medical corespondent” Dr. Sanjay Gupta presented a “reality check”. It turned that the “reality check” was full of errors (11 errors at least) . Not to mention that the language used in the “reality check” is 100% FUD tactics.

Here is the the recording of the “situation room” show :

This show triggered a virulent reaction from Michael Moore. He posted on his web site an Open Letter to CNN. Soon after that CNN admitted that the “reality check” from the show were wrong.

Here are Michael Moore responses:

Michael Moore versus Wolf Blitzer:

and later on on Larry King Live:

And it seems this is not over yet.

This is not the first time when CNN uses this kind of tactics. Do you remember CNN broadcasts on 9 / 11? Or the one before US invaded Iraq? There is one question in my mind. Who are they trying to protect ?