See if you can find the bias ...
Reading this with my coffee this morning:
So first things first ... exemplary care? Compared to what? And shouldn't that be in quotes if Moore said that? Otherwise it looks like editorializing on the part of the writer.
Second ... Michael Moore is great at taking half truths, sensationalizing them, and making millions of people cry over his brilliance. The only thing he's really good at, is publicity. I'd almost wager a bet that he decided not to legally travel to Cuba just so he could have a legal battle with the US government at the same time his movie came out. It would fit nicely into his plan. And wouldn't he just love to go to jail for an hour or so? He'd make bail of course because he would not like missing his 6 meals a day ... but wouldn't he love the pictures of him in handcuffs being escorted to prison. "Never fear, brave citizens, my next documentary will be on the jail system in the US and how criminals are treated terribly!" Or something.
My problem with him? Well, just as is with Bowling for Columbine, the premise is overall good ... but he takes a subject that he's not smart enough to tackle, and ends up hurting people. The children he used in the Columbine movie later came back and said they felt used. So did the soldiers he interviewed for the 9/11 movie and one of the workers he promised health care to and than later did not use for his new movie ... they all come back feeling used.
Here's the thing ... if he really wanted to do something good for health care ... he could lead a charge against obesity in this country. Start a weight loss program. Do you know what the number one killer of American's is? Heart Disease. Do you know why health care costs are sky rocketing? Because people are overweight and don't take care of themselves and it's a drain on the system.
And I always feel like he's leaving out an important detail in his reporting: like the man with the fingers. Well what other factors were there? Had he met his deductible? Did he not have insurance? Had he not gotten insurance because he didn't want to pay high premiums? There's always more to the story ... and Moore never gets it.
But his movie will be a smash. And he'll make another one. And another one.
And one day ... if he doesn't start taking better care of himself ... he'll start getting sick. And the irony of it is ... he'll have millions at his disposal to get better. Meanwhile, the people he's using for his own personal gain, will continue struggling to make ends meet and pay their bills.
That's it for the day ...
PS - Carter took back his comments. Go figure. I would have felt better if he had at least stuck to his guns. But he said his remarks were careless. And now he is "increasingly irrelevant."
By Mike Collett-White
CANNES, France (Reuters) - Director Michael Moore says the U.S. health care system is driven by greed in his new documentary "SiCKO", and asks of Americans in general, "Where is our soul?"
He also said he could go to jail for taking a group of volunteers suffering ill health after helping in the September 11, 2001 rescue efforts on an unauthorized trip to Cuba, where they received exemplary treatment at virtually no cost.
The controversial film maker is back in Cannes, where he won the film festival's highest honor in 2004 with his anti-Bush polemic "Fahrenheit 9/11".
In "SiCKO" he turns his attention to health, asking why 50 million Americans, 9 million of them children, live without cover, while those that are insured are often driven to poverty by spiraling costs or wrongly refused treatment at all.
But the movie, which has taken Cannes by storm, goes further by portraying a country where the government is more interested in personal profit and protecting big business than caring for its citizens, many of whom cannot afford health insurance.
"I'm trying to explore bigger ideas and bigger issues, and in this case the bigger issue in this film is who are we as a people?" Moore told reporters after a press screening.
"Why do we behave the way we behave? What has become of us? Where is
our soul?"
"SiCKO" uses humor and tragic personal stories to get the point across, and had a packed audience variously laughing and in tears. There was loud applause at the end of the two-hour documentary, which is out of the main Cannes competition.
Moore was asked by journalists why he painted such a rosy picture of other countries' health systems, including Britain, France, Canada and Cuba, and the implied criticism is likely to be raised again. But he defended his methods.
"I recognize that there are flaws in your system but that's not for me to correct, that's for you to correct," he told a Canadian reporter.
RANGE OF EMOTIONS
One section of the film explains how a U.S. man severed the tip of two fingers in an accident and was told he would have to pay $12,000 to re-attach the end of his ring finger, and $60,000 to re-attach that of his index finger.
"Being a hopeless romantic, Rick chose his ring finger," Moore quipped in a typically sardonic voiceover.
It also follows a woman whose young daughter falls seriously ill but who said she was refused admission to a general hospital and instructed to go to a private one instead. By the time she got to the second hospital, it was too late to save the girl.
One of the most controversial passages of the film, due to be released in the United States on June 29, compares health care in the United States to that which Islamic militant suspects receive at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
"I think when Americans see this they are not going to focus on Cuba or Fidel Castro," Moore said, referring to the controversy surrounding his trip to Cuba, which has prompted a U.S. government investigation.
"They are going to say to themselves, 'You're telling me that the al Qaeda detainees are receiving better health care, the people that helped participate in the attacks of 9/11 are receiving better health care from us than those who went down to rescue those who suffered and died on 9/11?"
Moore added that he was taking the investigation seriously.
"I'm the one who's personally being investigated and I'm the one who's personally liable for potential fines or jail, so I don't take it lightly."
So first things first ... exemplary care? Compared to what? And shouldn't that be in quotes if Moore said that? Otherwise it looks like editorializing on the part of the writer.
Second ... Michael Moore is great at taking half truths, sensationalizing them, and making millions of people cry over his brilliance. The only thing he's really good at, is publicity. I'd almost wager a bet that he decided not to legally travel to Cuba just so he could have a legal battle with the US government at the same time his movie came out. It would fit nicely into his plan. And wouldn't he just love to go to jail for an hour or so? He'd make bail of course because he would not like missing his 6 meals a day ... but wouldn't he love the pictures of him in handcuffs being escorted to prison. "Never fear, brave citizens, my next documentary will be on the jail system in the US and how criminals are treated terribly!" Or something.
My problem with him? Well, just as is with Bowling for Columbine, the premise is overall good ... but he takes a subject that he's not smart enough to tackle, and ends up hurting people. The children he used in the Columbine movie later came back and said they felt used. So did the soldiers he interviewed for the 9/11 movie and one of the workers he promised health care to and than later did not use for his new movie ... they all come back feeling used.
Here's the thing ... if he really wanted to do something good for health care ... he could lead a charge against obesity in this country. Start a weight loss program. Do you know what the number one killer of American's is? Heart Disease. Do you know why health care costs are sky rocketing? Because people are overweight and don't take care of themselves and it's a drain on the system.
And I always feel like he's leaving out an important detail in his reporting: like the man with the fingers. Well what other factors were there? Had he met his deductible? Did he not have insurance? Had he not gotten insurance because he didn't want to pay high premiums? There's always more to the story ... and Moore never gets it.
But his movie will be a smash. And he'll make another one. And another one.
And one day ... if he doesn't start taking better care of himself ... he'll start getting sick. And the irony of it is ... he'll have millions at his disposal to get better. Meanwhile, the people he's using for his own personal gain, will continue struggling to make ends meet and pay their bills.
That's it for the day ...
PS - Carter took back his comments. Go figure. I would have felt better if he had at least stuck to his guns. But he said his remarks were careless. And now he is "increasingly irrelevant."
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