Documentary presenter Christopher Hitchens, who is better known as a journalist-author, produced a widely quoted critique on Michael Moore that sums up what Moore critics feel to be his betrayal of the craft. Hitchens argues: " if I write an article and I quote somebody and for space reasons put in an ellipsis like this [], I swear on my children that I am not leaving out anything that, if quoted in full, would alter the original meaning or its significance. Those who violate this pact with readers or viewers are to be despised" (2).

To deliberately distort a conciliatory speech into a gloating one ( Part 1 ) is despicable. But if Moore had already painted a black picture of Charlton Heston through his alternate reality fix, well, the filmmaker is not through yet with his assault on the hapless actor. Closing his film Bowling for Columbine , Moore plays another Heston segment designed to evoke an undeserved and callous impression of Heston. Under false pretences, he had finagled an interview with the elderly movie star (then president of the National Rifle Association) at the latter's sprawling Hollywood home.

Watching on DVD, it is easier for my friend (a former sound engineer) and me - compared to cinema-goers - to spot the clues that point to the director manipulating video footage in Bowling . Using the DVD player's zoom-and-magnify tool, we see a wall clock in the background (near Moore's head) reading 5.47 at the start of the interview. When Heston finally escapes from Moore's badgering, it is 6.10. By the clock, 23 minutes had elapsed. Moore claims he had left the interview almost unedited, yet it timed only five and a quarter minutes. The doctored footage is brought to light by Moore's American critics but once you know what to look out for, you realise that these cuts are discernible to an alert layman.