1. ABC Champions How 'Stimulus' Will Enable Mayors to Create Jobs
ABC's World News on Tuesday night celebrated President Obama's signature on the 'stimulus' package by devoting a full story to how mayors will supposedly use their portion to create 1.6 million jobs. Fill-in anchor Diane Sawyer recited "the wish list" of "nearly 19,000 infrastructure projects -- roads, bridges, mass transit -- costing some $150 billion" and "the mayors argue that the projects are ready to go and will bring along 1.6 million jobs." No word about the inevitable corruption as reporter David Muir trumpeted: "Across this country, mayors and governors tonight are pouring over wish lists -- broken bridges, schools, libraries -- all of which need help." Justifying the spending for Elkhart, Indiana, Muir listed worthwhile projects and specific numbers of jobs each would supposedly create: "Fixing one of their main streets would cost $34 million and create 858 new jobs...." He moved on to Hoboken, New Jersey's $36 million plan to prevent flooding, a project the mayor declared will lead to "several hundred employees being hired immediately." Muir concluded by seeing a harmonious match of money and need: "Here, and across the country, a flood of requests from cities in need of help and workers in need of jobs."

2. Lauer to Rove: Do You Have 'Credibility' to Criticize Stimulus?
Karl Rove was invited on Tuesday's Today show to discuss Obama's stimulus plan and NBC's Matt Lauer pressed the former Bush senior adviser about the one-sidedness of the vote on the bill by the GOP as he pressed Rove: "219, if you add up the House and the Senate we have what, 219 Republicans. All but three of them voted against this plan...do those 216 Republicans run the risk of being on the outside looking in, if this starts to work?" Lauer also went on to cite Obama's senior adviser David Axelrod ridiculing any member of Bush administration for offering economic advice as Lauer doubted: "Do you have credibility on this subject...would you say that the eight years of the Bush administration were lax on regulation?"

3. ABC's David Wright Derides Sarah Palin as a Barbie Doll
Nightline reporter David Wright on Monday inserted a gratuitous slam of Sarah Palin into a seemingly innocuous segment covering the 50th anniversary of the Barbie doll. Recounting the various versions of the Mattel toy, he set up the attack: "[Barbie's] been an astronaut and a rock star. Pop icons Beyonce and Shakira. She's won 'American Idol' too." Right after footage of the "President Barbie" doll appeared on screen, the segment cut to various clips of a stylish-looking Palin as Wright derided: "Some would argue she also ran for Vice President in 2008."

4. Bill Ayers vs. Bill Buckley: Double Standards in the NY Times
New York Times "Q&A" reporter Deborah Solomon questioned conservative icon William F. Buckley in a more hostile fashion than she did Weatherman bomber Bill Ayers. Every Sunday, Solomon conducts a weekly Q&A with a newsmaker for the New York Times Magazine. This past Sunday it was unrepentant domestic terrorist -- and long-standing Obama associate -- Bill Ayers, a man the Times did its best to render un-newsworthy during the presidential campaign. Just as the Times did with its front-page inoculation "investigation" last October, Solomon also helped bailed out Ayers' reputation, taking a mildly negative tone in only two out of a total of 15 questions she put to him. But back in 2004, she hit Buckley: "You seem indifferent to suffering. Have you ever suffered yourself?"

5. CNN Airs Sympathetic Report on Latest Michael Moore Project
On Tuesday's American Morning, anchor Kiran Chertry and correspondent Jason Carroll failed to mention the left-wing politics of filmmaker Michael Moore during a report about his latest project, which targets the financial industry, and included a sound bite from People Magazine's Leah Rozen, who expressed a desire to "see Michael Moore spank Wall Street." Carroll emphasized Moore's credentials, and agreed with Chetry that many would rush to assist him: "They loved that 'gotcha' kind of filmmaking, and Michael Moore does it better than no one else and he's about to do it again." The segment on Moore's new production began with a clip from "Sicko," his last movie, as Chetry announced that "the controversial filmmaker is setting his sights on Wall Street. He's actively recruiting people who've worked in the financial sector to expose what he calls the biggest swindle in U.S. history." As she introduced Carroll, the anchor continued that Moore "probably has a rapt audience at this point, because everything that's happened with this financial crisis and a lot of people are blaming Wall Street."

ABC Champions How 'Stimulus' Will Enable
Mayors to Create Jobs

     ABC's World News on Tuesday night celebrated President Obama's signature on the 'stimulus' package by devoting a full story to how mayors will supposedly use their portion to create 1.6 million jobs. Fill-in anchor Diane Sawyer recited "the wish list" of "nearly 19,000 infrastructure projects -- roads, bridges, mass transit -- costing some $150 billion" and "the mayors argue that the projects are ready to go and will bring along 1.6 million jobs." No word about the inevitable corruption as reporter David Muir trumpeted: "Across this country, mayors and governors tonight are pouring over wish lists -- broken bridges, schools, libraries -- all of which need help."

     Justifying the spending, Muir cited replacing "old boilers" at a high school which Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm insisted would create jobs. Jumping to Elkhart, Indiana, Muir listed worthwhile projects and specific numbers of jobs each would supposedly create: "Fixing one of their main streets would cost $34 million and create 858 new jobs. Fixing the city's pumping facility, $9 million, 225 new jobs and upgrading an airport runway: $5.5 million, 138 people to work." He moved on to Hoboken, New Jersey's $36 million plan to prevent flooding, a project the mayor declared will lead to "several hundred employees being hired immediately."

     Muir concluded by seeing a harmonious match of money and need: "Here, and across the country, a flood of requests from cities in need of help and workers in need of jobs."

     [This item, by the MRC's Brent Baker, was posted Tuesday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

     Meanwhile, in a story to file under "Now They Tell Us," four hours after Obama signed the bill the NBC Nightly News got around to informing viewers of how it may not be a great as the media sold it. NBC caught up with the CBS Evening News, as recounted in a February 2 CyberAlert item: "CBS Lists Excess Spending Which Prompted GOP Opposition," online at: www.mrc.org

     NBC anchor Brian Williams noted the "giant stimulus bill the President signed today, $787billion in spending, hopes are high it will help. It's designed to put Americans to work." But, he acknowledged, "at over a thousand pages, people are still reading through it, discovering what's in it. And a lot of critics of course are looking closely."

     Lisa Myers reported, in part:

Added behind these doors in the final draft of the stimulus package, $8 billion for high-speed rail projects. Critics say some of that is likely to go for a pet project of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a magnetic levitation rail line from Las Vegas to Disneyland near Los Angeles. Critics say such projects may be good for Vegas and other locales, but they're not critical national priorities....

Conservative economists say that though some of the spending is worthwhile, the package is not properly designed to stimulate the economy....

Then there is the price tag. If the package creates or saves 3.5 million jobs as predicted, it will cost a quarter of a million dollars per job. The Obama administration says the cost of doing nothing would be much greater, in human and economic terms.

     Transcript of the story on the Tuesday, February 17 World News on ABC:

     DIANE SAWYER: The nation's mayors are getting in line for their portion of the stimulus money, and the wish list: nearly 19,000 infrastructure projects -- roads, bridges, mass transit -- costing some $150 billion. And the mayors argue that the projects are ready to go and will bring along 1.6 million jobs. Here's ABC's David Muir.

     DAVID MUIR: Across this country, mayors and governors tonight are pouring over wish lists -- broken bridges, schools, libraries -- all of which need help.
     GOVERNOR JENNIFER GRANHOLM (D) MICHIGAN: We've got over $50 billion worth of requests just in the state of Michigan for a pot that's less than $1 billion.
     MUIR: As Michigan's Governor studied the requests, so did we. Lansing, Michigan, alone, 20 projects, $132 million worth. One project, simply replacing these decades old boilers in this high school. Governor Granholm has yet to sign off but knows how significant every green light will be.
     GRANHOLM: It would. It would add jobs in installing the boiler, perhaps in maintaining the boiler, but it's not just the boiler obviously whatever they have had on the shelf for a long period of time, they might be able to now to compete and put people to work.
     MUIR: In Elkhart, Indiana, a city devastated by the highest jobless rate in the country, the mayor told us his projects are shovel-ready. Fixing one of their main streets would cost $34 million and create 858 new jobs. Fixing the city's pumping facility, $9 million, 225 new jobs and upgrading an airport runway: $5.5 million, 138 people to work. This man used to build RVs. He told us, any of it he would take.
     MAN: With a little bit of training, I feel like I can do just about anything.
     MUIR: Another American city with a major project on the wish list, Hoboken, New Jersey, here on the banks of the Hudson. At high tide and during severe weather there is flooding here, and they've wanted to fix it for years. Engineers have already drawn up plans for major pumps to fix the problem. The cost, $36 million.
     MUIR TO MAYOR DAVID ROBERTS: And how many people would you hire right away?
     HOBOKEN MAYOR DAVID ROBERTS: It would be several hundred employees being hired immediately.
     MUIR: Here, and across the country, a flood of requests from cities in need of help and workers in need of jobs. David Muir, ABC News, Hoboken, New Jersey.

Lauer to Rove: Do You Have 'Credibility'
to Criticize Stimulus?

     Karl Rove was invited on Tuesday's Today show to discuss Obama's stimulus plan and NBC's Matt Lauer pressed the former Bush senior adviser about the one-sidedness of the vote on the bill by the GOP as he pressed Rove: "219, if you add up the House and the Senate we have what, 219 Republicans. All but three of them voted against this plan...do those 216 Republicans run the risk of being on the outside looking in, if this starts to work?" Lauer also went on to cite Obama's senior adviser David Axelrod ridiculing any member of Bush administration for offering economic advice as Lauer doubted: "Do you have credibility on this subject...would you say that the eight years of the Bush administration were lax on regulation?"

     [This item, by the MRC's Geoffrey Dickens, was posted Tuesday morning on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

     However this prompted Rove to hit back, in the following exchange, as he noted Democrats like Barack Obama were the ones who stood in the way of the Bush administration regulating some of the main culprits behind the mortgage mess -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:

     MATT LAUER: You've come out and talked about it in your, written about it in your op-ed, you've spoken about this statement which prompted a comment from David Axelrod, the current senior adviser to the President. And I'm paraphrasing here Karl but he basically said, "Why do we need advice from any one attached to the Bush administration over the last eight years? Look at the economy as a result of that administration." How do you respond to that? Do you have credibility on this subject?
     KARL ROVE: Well, first of all, look I'm not giving them advice. I'm commenting on what they're doing. I'm sure even this White House would say that people have a right to offer an opinion. Frankly, I thought it was interesting. The biggest accelerant in this economic difficulty was the failure of the government to rein in Fannie and Freddie. It was the Bush administration trying to rein in Fannie and Freddie. A new senator came to the United States Senate in January 2005 and refused to join the reform efforts, in fact, joined a filibuster effort to, to on the, on the bill that the administration offered up to rein it in. That senator was-
     LAUER: That senator was?
     ROVE: -Barack Obama of Illinois. He could have come and said, "You know what, I agree with the administration, we ought to rein in these imprudent lending practices that are getting us into difficulty." Do you know that, that it took 30 years for Fannie and Freddie to buy $2 trillion worth of mortgages? It took them five years to buy another trillion dollars worth of mortgages. After we tried to regulate them in 2005 it took them two-and-a-half years to get another trillion-two, mostly imprudent loans that they bought up.
     LAUER: But, but you bring up this as an example but overall would you say that the eight years of the Bush administration were lax on regulation?
     ROVE: No, no! Look, we, we, we were the administration that said this needs to be regulated. This is too big, too dangerous. A Clinton era regulator, Armando Falcon came in, in 2001. He had a term, so he was in office while Bush was in office and briefed the White House on this. And we agreed and began to move to regulate Fannie and Freddie. And it was, again I repeat, Democrats led by Chris Dodd and helped by the new senator from Illinois who blocked it in 2005.

     The following is the full interview with Rove as it occurred on the February 17 Today show:

     MATT LAUER: Alright, Savannah, thanks very much. Savannah Guthrie at the White House this morning. Karl Rove was the senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush. He is now a contributor to Fox News. Hey, Karl, good morning, good to have you here.
     [On screen headline: "Rove On Stimulus, Is GOP Gambling On Obama Failing?"]
     KARL ROVE: Good morning to you.
     LAUER: About $800 billion, that's what this package is all about. It's gonna get signed today. This is the kind of legislation that normally in Washington takes months and months to pass. They got this in one month. Does part of you admire that and does part of you worry about that?
     ROVE: Well, it's, it's a great accomplishment. 667 hours and 10 minutes, that's how long the President has been President, and they got this bill done in less than that time. On the other hand it was rushed at the end, and as a result, people's confidence in this bill is necessaribly [sic], necessarily shaken.
     LAUER: But rushed? When you started to hear the jobless numbers, when you started to hear Admiral Dennis Blair, the chief of national intelligence, saying the economy right now in its current condition is the biggest threat we face, more so than al-Qaeda, doesn't it seem that quick and bold action was necessary?
     ROVE: Well, quick and bold was necessary, but let's step back a minute. December 18th was when Barack Obama's advisers went to Capitol Hill and said to the, to the members of Congress, "We would like to have a package of roughly $850 billion. We're not gonna give you a detailed plan. We're gonna describe 200, less than $200 billion of that. You go write the rest." And they said, "We would like it to be temporary, timely, and targeted." And we got, we got it timely, that is to say a big bill done quickly, but there is a real question as to how targeted and how stimulative this bill really is gonna be.
     LAUER: 219, if you add up the House and the Senate we have what, 219 Republicans. All but three of them voted against-
     ROVE: Right.
     LAUER: -this plan.
     ROVE: Well, I'd like to look at it a different way. Twice as many Democrats voted against the President's plan as Republicans voted for it.
     LAUER: Oh but let's, let me look at it my way for a second okay? 216 Republicans seem to have placed a bet on failure. Isn't that safe to say?

     ROVE: No, no. What they bet on was this was not the right way to stimulate the economy. The one, the interesting thing was, in both the House and Senate, the Republicans went out of their way to offer alternatives and to discuss items with the White House and with their Democrat colleagues when they were allowed to. In the House they weren't allowed to talk at all.
     LAUER: But even, but in the, in the op-ed you wrote in the Wall Street Journal, you said this will have some impact on, on the economy. And part of it will happen by its own due course anyway.
     ROVE: Right.
     LAUER: But do those 216 Republicans run the risk of being on the outside looking in, if this starts to work?
     ROVE: It, it depends, it depends. If they go out and adopt the rhetoric that this is a, that the, that the economy is gonna go to Hell in a hand basket, then they're gonna have a problem. But if on the other hand, they say, "You know what, there are better ways to do this and we didn't need all this pork, we didn't need all this special interest spending, we wanted a bill that worked right now." There's gonna be more money spent under this bill between 2011 and 2019 that will be spent this year. That's, that's pretty remarkable for a bill that's supposed to stimulate the economy today.
     LAUER: You, you, you've been, you've come out and talked about it in your, written about it in your op-ed, you've spoken about this statement which prompted a comment from David Axelrod, the current senior adviser to the President. And I'm paraphrasing here Karl but he basically said, "Why do we need advice from any one attached to the Bush administration over the last eight years? Look at the economy as a result of that administration." How do you respond to that? Do you have credibility on this subject?

     ROVE: Well, first of all, look I'm not giving them advice. I'm commenting on what they're doing. I'm sure even this White House would say that people have a right to offer an opinion. Frankly, I thought it was interesting. The biggest accelerant in this economic difficulty was the failure of the government to rein in Fannie and Freddie. It was the Bush administration trying to rein in Fannie and Freddie. A new senator came to the United States Senate in January 2005 and refused to join the reform efforts, in fact, joined a filibuster effort to, to on the, on the bill that the administration offered up to rein it in. That senator was-

     LAUER: That senator was?

     ROVE: -Barack Obama of Illinois. He could have come and said, "You know what, I agree with the administration, we ought to rein in these imprudent lending practices that are getting us into difficulty." Do you know that, that it took 30 years for Fannie and Freddie to buy $2 trillion worth of mortgages? It took them five years to buy another trillion dollars worth of mortgages. After we tried to regulate them in 2005 it took them two-and-a-half years to get another trillion-two, mostly imprudent loans that they bought up.

     LAUER: But, but you bring up this as an example but overall would you say that the eight years of the Bush administration were lax on regulation?

     ROVE: No, no! Look, we, we, we were the administration that said this needs to be regulated. This is too big, too dangerous. A Clinton era regulator, Armando Falcon came in, in 2001. He had a term, so he was in office while Bush was in office and briefed the White House on this. And we agreed and began to move to regulate Fannie and Freddie. And it was, again I repeat, Democrats led by Chris Dodd and helped by the new senator from Illinois who blocked it in 2005.

     LAUER: Let me end on a completely different subject. There is a report in the New York Daily News this morning that former Vice President Dick Cheney is furious at former President Bush for not pardoning Scooter Libby, that he went back and back in person and on the phone trying to get that pardon for his. his former aide, Scooter Libby, and it didn't happen and he's furious. What do you know about this?
     ROVE: Well I know that he felt strongly about this, but I think the tabloids tend to get these things overblown. These are two very close men who have, who had, who have a long and enduring relationship that' good and positive.
     LAUER: Hasn't been soured because of the lack of a pardon?
     ROVE: Look, look, no. I don't, I don't detect that at all. It's obviously something Dick Cheney feels strongly about, but the President laid out in his commutation of Scooter Libby the grounds on which he was making his decision.
     LAUER: Karl Rove. Karl thanks for coming in.
     ROVE: Thanks for having me.
     LAUER: Good to have you here. Appreciate it.

ABC's David Wright Derides Sarah Palin
as a Barbie Doll

     During the 2008 presidential election, Wright would occasionally throw in a out-of-left field shot at Palin or the Republican ticket. Reporting for Good Morning America on October 22, he discussed the Republican vice presidential candidate's attacks on Barack Obama and editorialized: "Her own glass house notwithstanding, Sarah Palin has thrown some stones on the issue, too, even though she's not above making gaffes of her own." See a October 23 CyberAlert posting for more: www.mrc.org

     [This item, by the MRC's Scott Whitlock, was posted Tuesday afternoon, with video, on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

     In a post-election look back on the November 5 World News, Wright nastily commented that while some Americans were "impressed" with the Alaska Governor, "plenty of others came to see Sarah Palin as an empty designer suit." See a November 6 CyberAlert posting: www.mrc.org

     On October 31, Wright took a swipe at McCain backer Joe "The Plumber" Wurzelbacher, deriding him on Nightline as "the Ohio plumber who has become a campaign mascot." See a October 31 NewsBusters posting for more: www.newsbusters.org

     A transcript of the relevant part of the February 16 Nightline segment:

     TERRY MORAN: That long hair, that bizarrely shaped figure and a name you just can't forget. By now, generations of little girls have called Barbie their friend. Others have disdained the doll. Over the decades, Barbie changed, new roles, new looks, often echoing real-life changes in the world around her and sometimes courting controversy. This year, Barbie turns 50. And for David Wright, that's "A Sign of the Times."

     ...

     DAVID WRIGHT: She's been an astronaut and a rock star. Pop icons Beyonce and Shakira. She's won "American Idol" too. [footage of Barbie as president doll.] She's even run for President twice. Some would argue she also ran for Vice President in 2008. [video of Sarah Palin.] And now, Barbie is chancellor of Germany. Go figure. Always, even at her most professional. Let's just say Barbie indulged her feminine side.

Bill Ayers vs. Bill Buckley: Double Standards
in the NY Times

     New York Times "Q&A" reporter Deborah Solomon questioned conservative icon William F. Buckley in a more hostile fashion than she did Weatherman bomber Bill Ayers. Every Sunday, Solomon conducts a weekly Q&A with a newsmaker for the New York Times Magazine. This past Sunday it was unrepentant domestic terrorist -- and long-standing Obama associate -- Bill Ayers, a man the Times did its best to render un-newsworthy during the presidential campaign.

     Just as the Times did with its front-page inoculation "investigation" last October (see: www.timeswatch.org ), Solomon also helped bailed out Ayers' reputation, taking a mildly negative tone in only two out of a total of 15 questions she put to him. But back in 2004, she hit Buckley: "You seem indifferent to suffering. Have you ever suffered yourself?"

     [This item, by Clay Waters, was posted Tuesday on the MRC's TimesWatch site: www.timeswatch.org ]

     Solomon began with political fluff: "In your new book, Race Course: Against White Supremacy, you and your wife, Bernardine Dohrn, describe your long struggle against racism and social injustice. Do you think Obama's victory has put America on a new course?"

     These three questions were as hostile as Solomon got:

     - "How did you feel when Obama publicly disowned you, describing you as a guy in his neighborhood who had committed 'despicable acts' when he was 8 years old?"

     - "Right, the Weathermen, which you co-founded, did hurt the antiwar movement by adopting violent tactics and alienating the middle class."

     - "Do you regret your involvement in setting off explosions in the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol?"

     Solomon concluded with two cheery queries:

     - "How do you feel when you wake up?"

     - "You're weirdly cheerful for a former bomb-thrower."

     For Solomon's interview in the February 15 New York Times Magazine, "Radical Cheer," go to: www.nytimes.com

     Contrast the soft questioning of Ayers to the untrammeled hostility with which Solomon greeted the late conservative icon William Buckley, the founder of National Review. Buckley was grilled by Solomon for the July 11, 2004 edition of the Times. Of the 20 questions Solomon asked Buckley, almost half were negative in tone, including these:

     - "You have made so many offensive comments over the years. Do you regret any of them?"

     - "It's not fair to blame the press. Some of your most inflammatory comments have been made in your essays and columns. In the 50's, you famously claimed that whites were culturally superior to African-Americans."

     - "You seem indifferent to suffering. Have you ever suffered yourself?"

     For the full interview: www.nytimes.com

CNN Airs Sympathetic Report on Latest
Michael Moore Project

     On Tuesday's American Morning, anchor Kiran Chertry and correspondent Jason Carroll failed to mention the left-wing politics of filmmaker Michael Moore during a report about his latest project, which targets the financial industry, and included a sound bite from People Magazine's Leah Rozen, who expressed a desire to "see Michael Moore spank Wall Street." Carroll emphasized Moore's credentials, and agreed with Chetry that many would rush to assist him: "They loved that 'gotcha' kind of filmmaking, and Michael Moore does it better than no one else and he's about to do it again."

     The segment on Moore's new production began with a clip from "Sicko," his last movie, as Chetry announced that "the controversial filmmaker is setting his sights on Wall Street. He's actively recruiting people who've worked in the financial sector to expose what he calls the biggest swindle in U.S. history." As she introduced Carroll, the anchor continued that Moore "probably has a rapt audience at this point, because everything that's happened with this financial crisis and a lot of people are blaming Wall Street."

     [This item, by the MRC's Matthew Balan, was posted Tuesday afternoon on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

     The correspondent couldn't have agreed more with Chetry's assessment: "Absolutely, you know, and also they loved that 'gotcha' kind of filmmaking, and Michael Moore does it better than no one else and he's about to do it again. Michael Moore says he's looking for a few good men and women to spill the beans and help him take on Wall Street....Now, his Web site says, 'Will you help me with my next film?' The 'you' Moore is referring to, is anyone who works at a bank, brokerage firm, or insurance company to come forward and share what he calls the real deal about the abuses in the financial industry."

     Carroll then played Rozen's "spank" remark, as well as a clip from another critic, who expressed his excitement over "the idea of Michael Moore taking on Wall Street." He later included the reactions of four unidentified workers to the new project. One labeled the filmmaker "anti-American."

     While Chetry twice labeled Moore "controversial," and mentioned how "some people think he's very anti-American and has -- it comes, you know, with a point of view," neither she nor Carroll mentioned what specific point of view he holds.

     The full transcript of the Chetry/Caroll segment on Moore, which began 18 minutes into the 6 pm Eastern hour of Tuesday's American Morning:

     MICHAEL MOORE: So this is where people come to pay their bill when they're done staying in the hospital.
     UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: No, this is the NHS hospital, so you don't pay the bill.
     MOORE: Why does it say cashier here if people don't have to pay a bill?
     UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Those who have reduced means get their traffic expenses reimbursed.
     MOORE: So in British hospitals, instead of money going in to the cashier's window, money comes out.
     KIRAN CHETRY: All right. Welcome back to the most news in the morning. That was a scene from the Michael Moore documentary Sicko, which took on America's health care industry. Now, the controversial filmmaker is setting his sights on Wall Street. He's actively recruiting people who've worked in the financial sector to expose what he calls the biggest swindle in U.S. history.
     CNN's Jason Carroll is following the story. He probably has a rapt audience at this point-
     JASON CARROLL: Oh, yeah.
     CHETRY: Because everything that's happened with this financial crisis and a lot of people are blaming Wall Street.
     CARROLL: Absolutely, you know, and also they loved that 'gotcha' kind of filmmaking, and Michael Moore does it better than no one else and he's about to do it again. Michael Moore says he's looking for a few good men and women to spill the beans and help him take on Wall Street. He's already taken on the health care industry, the auto industry, and the gun lobby in his films. Now, his Web site says, 'Will you help me with my next film?' The 'you' Moore is referring to, is anyone who works at a bank, brokerage firm, or insurance company to come forward and share what he calls the real deal about the abuses in the financial industry. Some critics are already looking forward to it.
     LEAH ROZEN, PEOPLE MAGAZINE: Do I want to see Michael Moore spank Wall Street? Yeah, I want to see Michael Moore spank Wall Street.
     JOSHUA ROTHKOPF, TIME OUT MAGAZINE: Michael Moore represents part of the chorus that should be there. I think if all documentaries were sort of like Michael Moore movies -- that might be a little much -- but at the same time, I personally am excited about the idea of Michael Moore taking on Wall Street.
     CARROLL: Moore is asking Wall Street workers to spill the beans, if they have information they think the American people need to hear. The question is, will Wall Street want to help? We asked some workers and got some mixed reaction.
     UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: I think that he'll put everybody on the spot and keep everyone on their toes.
     UNIDENTIFIED MAN #3: His opinion is -- his viewpoint is so slanted that it's really difficult to believe anything that he puts on film.
     UNIDENTIFIED MAN #4: I just think his whole mind-set is very anti-American, and I don't think he's the right person to ask about anything, quite honestly.
     UNIDENTIFIED MAN #5: Well, I think any time Michael Moore targets you, you should be worried.
     CARROLL: Well, Moore says it's up to anyone with information to quote,'step up and be an American and do your duty to help shed some light on the financial collapse.' He also says any correspondence with him will be kept confidential, that is, of course, unless you agree to participate in his film, and if you've seen some of his past films, you know that you're going to be in there.
     CHETRY: Right. It's very interesting, a very controversial figure. You heard some people think he's very anti-American and has -- it comes, you know, with a point of view.
     CARROLL: Yeah.
     CHETRY: And there are others who say, I can't wait to see what he does, because he does shed light on some things.
     CARROLL: Yeah. You heard from the critics. They're looking forward to it.
     CHETRY: Yes. Exactly. All right. Jason Carroll, thanks so much.
     CARROLL: All right.

-- Brent Baker