The filmmakers found this shocking, as it appeared to contradict what they say is one of the central premises of Moore's film, that corporate CEOs refuse to answer questions or acknowledge any wrongdoing.

The extended footage shows each speaker at the dinner poking fun at himself, including a clip of Al Gore joking that he invented the Internet.

[4] Moore rejected allegations he successfully managed to interview Roger Smith and then left that footage on the cutting room floor, telling the Associated Press: "Anyone who says that is a fucking liar."

The filmmaker accepted having had a "good five minutes of back-and-forth" with Smith about a tax abatement issue after ambushing him at a shareholders' meeting in 1987, but maintained this specific questioning occurred before work began on Roger & Me and was not connected to the film.

"[5] Progressive documentary maker John Pilger wrote that, far from being an impartial portrait of the filmmaker, Manufacturing Dissent "appears to have been timed to discredit, if not Sicko, then Moore himself", assailing him "with a blunderbuss of assertions and hearsay".

When the pair refused to direct their criticism solely at Michael Moore, but also at mainstream U.S. media and George W. Bush, the interview was cut short.