Friday, July 20, 2007

What seems to be the problem?

First, CNN interviewed Michael Moore about his latest film Sicko. However, just before they began the interview, they ran a report by Dr. Sanjay Gupta that claimed that Moore fudged some of the facts in his movie. Moore lost it when he heard that and blasted CNN for biased reporting, urging them to "tell the American people the truth" once in all these years. He also promised to post the facts on his website showing how all the facts in the movie were correct.



A day later, CNN admitted that they got some of their numbers wrong.



Finally, Gupta and Moore met head to head on Larry King Live, where they tried to explain their respective positions. As an impartial observor, I felt that Moore was basically right in principle, and while issue may be taken with his impolite behavior onscreen, we have to understand that not everyone can be sauve and smooth on television; however, that does not mean they are not speaking the truth, nor does it undermine the point they are making. Regarding specific objections about wait times being longer in Canada, I think these are observations tangential to the main discussion. If wait times are longer in Canada, they are much better in England and Australia, and nobody has claimed that the US clone the system in Canada or England. This is a discussion towards making a better health care system in USA, and the underlying intention is not to find solitary faults in other systems that are cited as examples, but to rectify faults in your own: if waiting times are longer in Canada, import that part of English policy that makes waiting times in UK shorter. If taxes are higher in France, look at what other countries are doing to keep them in check. Why should we pick up and slice and dice facts, when clearly this is a discussion about what is wrong with the system here: and it seems most people agree that it could use some reforms. Here is the head-to-head on Larry King Live:

Part 1:



Part 2:



Part 3:



On a parting note, am I the only one who felt annoyed that Larry King kept prompting them to finish their answers and indicating that they had only 'x' seconds left to answer? Let your guests make their points, thats the whole freaking point of inviting them to your show! Ah well, but what can you expect of a news network show that bumped Michael Moore's spot on Larry King just because Paris Hilton wanted to share her "growth as a person in prison".