The Big Picture

While I have always been a fan of Michael Moore ever since “Roger and Me” and certainly “Bowling for Columbine”, I will be the first to admit that he lacks objectivity and slants quite far to the left. He is constantly accused of being a sensationalist, a “crazy liberal”, and even “socialist” (surprise!). However, despite his bias, his facts are still quite accurate, but simply portrayed in a way meant to radicalize his sympathetic audience. As we discussed in class, we have become so inured to being lied to and cheated that people rarely get outraged at injustice anymore. I imagine this frustrates Moore greater than anything else and that his sensationalism is simply designed to shock people out of apathy, to elicit some passion.

A few months ago Moore appeared on CNN’s Situation Room to discuss “Sicko” with medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. The discussion was widely viewed as an effort for Dr. Gupta to discredit Moore’s film as factually inaccurate. Gupta was technically correct about certain inconsistencies, such as Cuba actually ranking below the U.S. in healthcare and the waiting time in Canada actually being longer than in the U.S., despite their portrayal in the movie. However, this just goes to show that the focus of this “reality check” is missing the point. Cuba’s healthcare system may rank 39th to the U.S.’s 37th, but they also only spend approximately $250 per person whereas the U.S. is projected at $6,000 to $7,500 per person. It is also true that Canada’s wait times are longer, yet shouldn’t the focus be on the fact that four out of five of the universal care systems presented are better than the U.S. rather than the one that is worse? Relating this to the portrayal of France, it is true that Moore skews their system by juxtaposing the best parts of their system against the worst of ours, but that doesn’t mean that his facts are inaccurate. In fact, CNN, the same network that allowed Dr. Gupta to factually misrepresent and marginalize Moore’s movie, later described the film as “numbers mostly accurate, more context needed” and admitted that “most pundits or health-care experts we spoke to spent more time on errors of omission rather than disputing the actual claims in the film.”

So while Moore does present other systems far more perfect than they are, that still doesn’t change the fact that the U.S. healthcare system is abysmal and needs significant reform. It doesn’t change the fact that, while not perfect, many of the other healthcare systems in the world have a lot of great ideas to offer. Moore’s films inspire passion and discussion and force people of all ideologies to think and in the end isn’t that preferable to acceptance and complacency?