..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

July 7, 2004

Lions Gate Responds To CNN's "Reliable Sources"

From: Tom Ortenberg
Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2004 3:40 PM
To: Howard Kurtz
Subject: Your CNN Show of July 4th

Mr. Kurtz,

I was most disappointed by the transcript I received from your July 4th CNN
show. I request you read the following on your show next week as rebuttal.
Please note as well that the next time you have guests on who are planning on
attacking our movie, feel free to request that we supply one to defend it. With
all due respect to Bill Press he did a poor job to say the least.

First and foremost, Fahrenheit 9/11 is a documentary. There is not a factual
error in it. If someone wants to argue with Michael Moore's analysis of the
facts that is fair game, but to say the film is not a documentary is not only
untrue, but also part of the campaign to smear the film so as to imply that it
is not factual, which it is.

As for some of the smears. Let's not talk about what Christopher Hitchens or
Michael Isikoff "think" is implied. What the film says is that Saudi's, and
members of the Bin Laden family in particular, received special treatment, and
that the interrogation, if any, of the departing Saudi's was less than thorough.
Does anyone dispute any of this?

Nor does the film say we went to war! in Afgh anistan to build the Unocal
pipeline, but rather the film does point out, for the first time to many
americans, some of the economic implications of our actions in the region.

As for Congressman Kennedy, there is no editing of his remarks. He was asked a
very specific question. The film accurately shows him being surprised at Michael
Moore's question. Period. Must we put every line of every interview in the
movie? Would its critics, not to mention audiences, then claim it was just a
bore? As for Mr. Kennedy, in the full transcript of his interview he not only
mentions family members in the military, he also says he will help Michael Moore
with his request to persuade Congressmen to enlist their children into the war,
although he never did. Should Moore have shown this as well just to embarrass
him? Were you aware that when Mr. Kennedy first went to the press with his
complaint about his remarks being left out of the movie, he misspoke about what
he had actually said to Moore in the original transcript? Should we have called
him on that as well?

Similarly, never for a second does Fahrenheit 9/11 say or imply that Iraq was a
happy place before our invasion, among other smears Hitchens alleges. What the
film does by showing children playing, is, again for the first time for many,
put a human face on the country we invaded. We killed many more civilians than
most americans have any idea of, and the film does what for the most part the
american media didn't do in showing the human element involved, and the great
price the civilian population of Iraq paid as a result of our actions.

Hitchens has referred often to his own documentary about Kissinger as cover for
attempting to smear Michael Moore, as though his own attempt to condemn a member
of the right makes him an authoritative voice to smear someone on the left.
Perhaps it is just professional jealousy. Michael Moore made a film that was
both ! informat ive AND entertaining, and has gotten more attention than Hitchens
could ever hope for. Not only that, did Hitchens really "make" the film? He is
not listed as writer, director or producer of the film on the internet movie
database. Regardless, for him to say his film "played" in theatres is also
playing a little footloose with the facts. How many theatres? In total the film
grossed $500,000 in theatres. As I write, Fahrenheit 9/11 has crossed the $60
million mark and going much higher.

We don't mind a fair debate of the merits of Fahrenheit 9/11, but what you put
on the air on July 4th wasn't even close.

I look forward to discussing further with you. Thank you.

Tom Ortenberg
President,
Lions Gate Films Releasing