Kyle Smith of the New York Post writes a nice takedown of Michael Moore's new move "Sicko." The movie has not yet been released, so we don't yet know for sure whether, like previous Moore films, it will be premised on a lie. As Smith notes, "the central idea of 'Bowling for Columbine' -- that the killers were subconsciously driven to their actions by the presence of a weapons manufacturing plant in Littleton ---turned out to be not only conceptually insane but literally untrue." In fact, the plant did not make what Moore called "weapons of mass destruction" but rather space launch vehicles for TV satellites. Similarly, "Roger and Me" presented Moore as unable to secure an interview with the GM chief Roger Smith. But, this "was also a 90-minute lie: Moore did talk to Roger Smith, a fact revealed by Ralph Nader."
"Sicko" apparently is built around stories of people who got the run-around from insurance companies. Such stories should be enough easy to find, so perhaps Moore was able to resist his usual practice of making things up. However, as Smith's review shows, these sorts of anecdotes are beside the point when it comes to rational debate about health care, given the ease with which one can find similarly chilling anecdotes about the health case systems Moore extols -- those of Canada, France, and England. (For a great send-up of the Canadian system, watch the excellent film "Invasion of the Barbarians" by leftist director Denys Aracand).
Smith provides plenty of evidence that should make us pause before seeking to emulate the health care systems of Canada, France, and England (much less that of Cuba which also draws particular praise from Moore). That doesn't mean that our system can't be improved or even that, ultimately, we shouldn't borrow elements from the system of one or more of these countries. It just means that Moore's film, if Smith has desccribed it fairly, is irrelevant to serious debate about these matters.
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 9)
1. Just like those on the political right to try and portray someone as irrelevant. I am not a Moore fan in anyway, shape or form, but enough is enough. Moore is a capitalist, tried and true.....making money on the truth of society that is getting sicker with each passing day.
Just like that lady that died on a hospital floor in California, with nurses and doctors looking on, the evil rightwing insurance came out, peddling the trash about her being a real lowlife, druggie and every other bit of trash personthey could find, just to justify their evilness to save a buck. Hopefully the same thing will happen to them or one of their dearest family members. Payback is the name of the game today, it would seem. Cold and calused is permeating a once vibrant and healthy society.
Stavo
Stavo at 11:14AM on Jun 20th 2007
2. Paul Mirengoff, this is where Michael Moore will continue to agitate the minds of people like you. I do not hold brief for him, but the wisdom of using fictional plants and characters is part of the show. But don't you think something is wrong when the super power of the world has more than 45million uninsured people. Don't you feel ashamed that the superpower of the world has over 50 millions people living in poverty? Don't think that charity should start at home?
Food for thought, and Micheal Moore will be smiling again to the banks. Crazy, isn't it?
Kennedy Mokwunye at 11:19AM on Jun 20th 2007
3. One of the things that is disturbing about this film is the fact that Michael Moore praises a communist country's healthcare system. It is insulting to those people who suffered the poor quality of healthcare, silence because of no free speech, a horrible dictatorship, and so on. Also...the way the film maker applauds a dictatorship like Cuba which has been an enemy of ours (the U.S.) for years looks a bit anti-patriotic. The movie wouldn't be worth watching.
dpb8720 at 11:37AM on Jun 20th 2007
4. Did you actually watch the Columbine movie? The premise was NOT that a manufacturing plant caused Columbine. The point of the movie was that the American culture of guns and violence provides a backdrop of encouragement to those who are violent and use guns to express their violence against others.
Donna at 11:45AM on Jun 20th 2007
5. Mirengoff is full of shit. Anyone who watched Bowling for Columbine knows that it was no more than the same old liberal attack on easily available firearms and the NRA. Likewise, Roger and Me was about how auto makers closed factories in the US and moved their operations over seas while making record profits. Simply put, if you are as sopho-moronic as Mirengoff, any excuse, no matter how demonstratedly absurd, is sufficient to dismiss anyone else's point of view. Mirengoff obviously hasn't had his health care terminated because his employer wanted to save some money, let alone being laid off. I'm sure his employer can find a better worker in India.
Boats at 11:57AM on Jun 20th 2007
6. Why does nobody realize that Moore is nothing more then someone who stirs whatever pot is hot at the moment in order to profit from others pain ?? He uses facts, more then enoug fiction, and raw emotions to generate millions and millions of dollars for his own use and consumption. What good do his "documentries" do for America ? Anyone can make any excuse to justify their actions. Any kid can shoot up a school and blame the society and upbringing ((although millions of kids in the same society don't go around shooting up schools...)) Anyone can go behind the war and turn up their nose and say its for oil, or it was based on a lie... or whatever other excuse you can come up with. But if gas dropped to a quarter a gallon...I'm sure those same people wouldn't be boycotting the nearest Shell station for their principals. Sure our health care system needs reform...but the way to get it is not by pointing fingers and placing blame. What a "great guy" he is for constantly pointing out the flaws in our government, yet does nothing else productive to make change. I wonder how many children could've been fed with the millions he's made. Or how many veterans and workers could've recieved health care with the millions he's made ... I wonder if Moore, like so many in Hollywood, even bother to vote. People should look closer beneath the glossy surface before they go pledging their allegance...and their money...to any given cause.
Angel at 7:43PM on Jun 20th 2007
7. To best understand Mr. Mirengoff's position, one should understand that he is an attorney with Akin, Gump. Here is an impressive list of the clients Akin, Gump registered to lobby for in the US :http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/legislative/b_three_sections_with_teasers/clientlist_page_A.htm
'Nuff said.
DW King at 11:57AM on Jun 20th 2007
8. To reply to an early comment. No, I do not beleive that it is " a bit anti-patriotic" to comment on Cubas healthcare. But I do think it is stupid not to acknowledge that we have a broken healthcare system and I really feel it should shame our goverment into fixing it. I have been taught all my life that American was the best country in the world but I am old enought to wear my Big Girl panties now and I have taken the rose colored glasses off. Somewhere along the way our goverment has lost that "by the people for the people" thing. Let's heal America FIRST!!!
audrey at 12:12PM on Jun 20th 2007
9. Anything that portrays the US and the establishment as "bad" in any way, is "bad". It must be, because we have set ourselves up morally above all other people in the World. How can 6% of the population of the World be wrong in any way? So bury your heads in the sand and you don't have to watch this film or read a book, or read history and any other source that may have some truth. So sad. We have revived the era of the "Ugly American".
vdubrosa@aol.com at 12:11PM on Jun 20th 2007
10. I have no confidence in anything Michael Moore says or does.
Larry at 12:22PM on Jun 20th 2007
11. WENT TO CUBA, CUBA PEOPLE, THEY SHOULD INVESTAGATE HIM, WITH ALL THE PROPAGANDA CRAP HE BRINGS OUT, TO MAKE THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR, THEN USE THE AMERICAN DOLLAR TO GO TO CUBA, TALK BAD ABOUT THE USA, THEN COMEBACK TO AMERICAN SOIL.
HE IS A SICKO...........AND PEOPLE WHO GIVE HIM THEIR HARD EARNED MONEY, DESERVE TO LOOSE IT!!!!!!!
CUBA at 12:37PM on Jun 20th 2007
12. Whether you like or dislike Michael Moore is irrelevant. The problem we have, is our Government is ready to spend billions on ways to blow things and people up, but has a deaf ear on trying to fix the real problems in this country; education, healthcare, poverty, and the exploitation of the middle class by big business. We lose more people EVERYDAY in this country due to LACK OF PROPER PREVENTATIVE HEALTHCARE AND POVERTY than we lost at the World Trade Center, which was a onetime event. Instead of fixing the real problems that have been going on for years, we have mobilized the Armed Forces and spent billions, maybe a trillion dollars, chasing Osama and Sadamm, and managed to piss off the world at the same time, while causing more death and destruction than either of them could have ever caused. One of their own eventually would have put out their lights, if we didn’t make martyrs or heroes out of them by being worse than either of them when it comes to death and destruction. It is a regular ploy by the Neo-Cons to kill the messenger (Michael Moore this time) when they don't like the message.
Louis at 12:33PM on Jun 20th 2007
13. Yep, another slanted attack by the dogs of the far right. Squash it before it can become much of a story and spin by calling someone or their work UN-American. " Why do you hate freedom? " Is their out for everything!!!!
Don't fret, just give it a little bit more short time, it's all gonna come crumbling down around our debt riddin, credit card spendin, "it's all about me" culture.
The lady abandoned by the hospital in such a respectful, life honoring way is just another symptom of the Red, White and Blue gone horribly wrong. Spin will only take you so far, and then you get really really dizzy, AND FALL DOWN!!!
Tad R. at 12:33PM on Jun 20th 2007
14. It doesn't matter to me what Michael Moore does in "Sicko." I already know that it is a joke to call healthcare in the United States a "system." It is just a patchwork designed to fork over to the insurance industry a large portion of our expenses. Nobody in the government has the guts to do what needs to be done: set up a universal, economical system such as Medicare that covers all legal residents regardless of employment, previous health problems, age, or wealth. If we have any sense as a nation, this will be the eventual outcome of healthcare reform. I for one want to rely at least partially on a broad sales tax so everyone pays at least a small share of the costs.
mansobravo at 12:34PM on Jun 20th 2007
15. Paul Mirengoff, this is where Michael Moore will continue to agitate the minds of people like you. I do not hold brief for him, but the wisdom of using fictional plants and characters is part of the show. But don't you think something is wrong when the super power of the world has more than 45million uninsured people. Don't you feel ashamed that the superpower of the world has over 50
millions people living in poverty? AND THI IS NEW?
NO. Don't think that charity should start at home?
Food for thought, and Micheal Moore will be smiling again to the banks. Crazy, isn't it?
DO YOU THINK PEOPLE WITHOUT MEDICAL INSURANCE IS NEW? HELL NO, THIS WAS GOING ON WAY BEFORE BUSH, WAY BEFORE, AND MICHAEL MOORE IS ONLY FOR MICHAEL MOORE AND THE MONEY HE REAPS FROM STUPID PEOPLE WHO PAY INTO HIS PROPAGANDA. THIS IS NOT A NEW ISSUE, NEVER HAS BEEN. MEDICAL IS WHY I HAD TO SELL MY HOME LAST YEAR. WAS BLEEDING ME DRY, BUT MR. MOORE IS NOT THE FIRST TO POINT THIS OUT. HE IS JUST A MAN WHO FEEDS HIS EGO ON THE PROBLEMS OF THE WORLD, AND WE FEED HIM THE DOLLLAR BILLS, LIKE WE FEED THE MEDICAL PEOPLE. ALL INSURANCE, CAR, HOUSE, MEDICAL IS A TOTAL RIPOFF, PERIOD!!!!!!! ALL, AND IF THE GOVERMENT REALLY TAKES IT OVER, IT WON'T BE SO SLAP HAPPY LIKE PEOPLE THINK! EDUCATED! WE DON'T WANT BIG BROTHER WATCHING OVER US, ANYMORE THEN THEY ALREADY DO! CAMERANS ON CORNERS NOW, WHATS NEXT! MR. MOORE IS NOT HELPING, HE ONLY INSITES TROUBLE, LIKE REV. AL SHARPIE SHARPTON. IT IS AMAZING TO ME HOW MANY PEOPLE WAKE UP, AND SEE GAS PRICES HIGH, MEDICAL HIGH, HELL IT HAS BEEN THIS WAY SINCE THE 1970, EVERYONE ACTS SO SURPRISED. FLIPPEN JOKE!! PROMISE, PROMISE, PROMISE, AND ALL STILL THE SAME, AND IT WILL BE THE SAME WHEN BUSH IS OUT, BELIEVE ME.
CUBA at 12:36PM on Jun 20th 2007