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The SiCKO / CNN Debate

Published July 16th, 2007 in Personal

sicko.jpgA series of events comprise the SiCKO / CNN debate. If you thought SiCKO was thought-provoking then you might be interested in digesting the following five pieces of media. In chronological order:

  1. CNN aired a “reality check” report by their health correspondent, Dr Sanjay Gupta, immediately before Wolf Blitzer interviewed Michael Moore on The Situation Room.
  2. Then, Michael Moore tore into CNN for their coverage of both Fahrenheit 911 and SiCKO.
  3. Michael Moore posted to his website all the inaccuracies in CNN’s “reality check” and requested an apology.
  4. CNN responded by addressing Michael Moore’s post line-by-line to defend their statistics (and, more importantly, their journalistic integrity).
  5. Michael Moore responded to CNNs response. He is angry (though he claims to have no personal contempt for CNN), and he intends to start fact-checking other CNN stories unrelated to his movies.

Overall, I think this debate is a bit childish. The statistics in SiCKO are not the scariest part of the movie: it’s the very human stories of people that are being denied healthcare for trivial reasons. I think health should be an inalienable right of all members of the human race. This is not true in America based on the state of our healthcare system. And, I appreciate Michael Moore’s movie for pointing that truth out.

I wish CNN had discussed with Michael Moore about solutions to cover the millions of uninsured Americans. I don’t know what the answer is (I’m not sure if it’s a nationalized healthcare system or not), but rather than attempting to answer this question, CNN resorted to petty nitpicking that did nothing other than spread FUD regarding health coverage for all Americans. Now both Michael Moore and CNN are down in the muck fighting over their reputations instead of discussing solutions. It’s unfortunate.

One Response to “The SiCKO / CNN Debate”  

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  1. 1 david Jul 22nd, 2007 at 4:01 pm

    I saw SICKO last night 7/20/07 and left the movie embarrassed for America, and especially embarrassed for Americans.

    We have been duped for nearly 50 years that the free market system is far superior to any of the unconscionable “social programs” as found in Russia (USSR).

    The description “Socialized (anything)” has conjured up emotions of incompetence, long lines and unacceptable services. I never knew that the UK has been practicing Socialized Medicine since 1948. I” couldn’t believe it. How did Margaret Thatcher allow this to continue on her watch? Why didn’t Ronald Reagan straighten her out on this error in judgment?

    I was so embarrassed that a great number of Americans are of the opinion that we (America) are heads and shoulders above the rest of the world in everything, including health care. Wow! What a reality check, to learn that we are 23 in the world in infant death mortality. Wow! That must be a mistake.

    In the 60’s and 70’s, America may have lead the world in quality of life. That may have been the case, but America has been on a downward slide for many years. Too much investment in Defense? Maybe. Why did we not invest the profits from the end of the Cold War into healthcare, or finding an alternate energy source?

    We needed a leader to challenge us to make it happen. Remember JFK’s promise to have an American on the surface of the moon by the end of the decade. Wow! That was leadership.

    How would America handle a challenge like that today? I’m sorry to say that in these days of fear mongering, we would fail miserably. ‘We have not had a president that has challenged us for a very long time. President Bush had an opportunity following 9/11. We would have followed him anywhere. It is too bad we have followed him over the edge of a cliff.

    How different would it bee if Bush had challenged America to become energy independent, independent of the Middle East Oil? Had he committed the investment in a program to find a new source of energy, rather than an ill-conceived war in Iraq (in an effort to secure another friend in the Middle East)?

    How different would the opinion of America to the rest of the world, if we had taken this challenge and eliminated the need for counties to be friends with these rogue Middle East countries, rather than US becoming a rogue country ourselves by acting outside the long standing rules that govern war, the Geneva Convention?

    Let us (all Americans) make the right choice in the upcoming presidential election. Let’s choose a leader with vision, not a leader who leads us through fear. As ???? said in SICKO, in a democracy the government should fear the voters, as they will be voted out if the majority are not pleased with their leadership.

    Americans have become complacent. Congress has a miserable 23% approval rating, but they are re-elected to office 95% of the time. Everyone believes that it is not his or her senator or congressman that is the problem is everyone else’s senator/congressman. Let’s wake up and smell the roses. It could very well be your congressman or Senator that is the problem. The one thing I am certain of our current President is our GREATEST PROBLEM.

    Wake up America.

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