TV: Michael Moore goes after Dr. Sanjay Gupta

UPDATE: On Tuesday night, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Michael Moore squared off on "Larry King Live." From a CNN.com report:

Moore and Gupta shouted and argued over data Gupta used and data Moore used. Moore said his staffers backed up the film's facts to Gupta before the report aired and that Gupta aired it knowing his facts were wrong.

"We try and look for some of the best sources we can possibly find," he said. "Michael has a lot of different numbers. ... You're sort of cherry-picking data from different reports."

Both agreed, however, on the basic premise of "Sicko": Problems abound in America's health-care system and need to be fixed.

See the 12-minute clip here (it includes Gupta's original report). POST YOUR COMMENTS BELOW.

OUR ORIGINAL POST: Michael Moore got nicely riled up on Wolf Blitzer's Situation Room Monday - this after Dr. Sanjay Gupta said the facts were 'fudged' in Moore's new movie, Sicko. Moore accused Gupta of being a mouthpiece for the pharmaceutical industry. He then swerves back a few years to the war in Iraq, and questions CNN's coverage. From the transcript of the show:

MOORE: I saw Dr. Sanjay Gupta over there embedded with the troops at the beginning of the war. He and the others of you in the mainstream media refused to ask our leaders the hard questions and demand the honest answers. And that's why we're in this war -- we're in the fifth year of this war because you and CNN, Dr. Gupta, you didn't do your jobs back then and now here we are in this mess.

Blitzer defended Gupta as an expert on medical issues and called him an "excellent, excellent journalist." The show's devoting another day to Moore, and Gupta may yet have his moment to respond.

Comments

[Donald]

Gupta talks about Michael Moore "fudging"? The only fudge here is on Dr. Gupta's nose, apparently there as a result to his close encounter with an insurance executive's derriere!

[Kirit Desai]

It was an interesting debate at CNN. Michel Moore had a good reason to be combative with CNN which ignored him for his earlier work of “Fahrenheit”. There are few points worth mentioning out of the episode:

(1) Moore’s claim on media’s ineptness on searching for truth behind Iraq war for past four years has some validity. CNN did not present any good reason behind such failure in the debate.

(2) Moore did not have much problem with Sanjay Gupta’s medical credentials. What he tried to argue against Blitzer’s claim of an "excellent, excellent journalist” for Gupta. Blitzer should have stayed with a term of “medical reporter” for Gupta.

(3) Moore should not have worried about Sanjay Gupta as a medical doctor asking the question on Iraq policy. He should have saved it for other elites in CNN newsroom.

(4) Silence from Blitzer had an echo of a biting guilt on non-performance and a validation on Moore’s charges on blind-eye to the war question.

(5) Sanjay Gupta’s remarks on comparison of US Health System to other nations were quite hollow. He defended USHS by claiming why Cuba (which is lower ranked than US) spending very little behind health care is not a real destination for overseas surgical procedures for Americans. What he failed to show that Cuba is just a couple notches behind US in ranking and low cost on health care is the precise reason for such phenomenon.

He (Gupta) also over-emphasized on the waiting period chart to prove US superiority and ignoring to mention all other factors which are really ailing US health care. He should have considered his audience little better educated in grasping overall issue that medical community tries to ignore in such spin. There was such an attempt when buying Canadian medicinal drugs across the border. Their defense rested on assumption on (poor) quality control of Canadian products!

(6) It was rather astonishing to see Moore flatly rejecting Blitzer’s request to continue on the interview behind the newsroom (off-camera). He was not ready to let CNN edit/alter the content of a live interview. It shows the level of trust in media’s reporting the news.

(7) Sanjay Gupta has ammunition of whole CNN crew to fire back at Moore but he really missed his chance very first time.

CNN was an ultimate loser in the first round shown live.

Kirit Desai
Philadelphia

[bhumika]

Blitzer got his a## kicked and he deserved it. i don't think Moore has any problem with Dr. Gupta, he is just mad at him for trying to defend the crappy US health system. dr.Gupta did say sorry for misunderstanding on US and Germany waiting time to see doctors, so i think there is no bad blood between him and Moore.

about Blitzer, i wish he will get this one more time..

[Vikas Mathur]

On Larry King's show, all Gupta really had to say was that "Sicko" was tendentious - that Moore cherrypicked his stats to bolster his argument. Hardly what one might call 'fudging' which was the term he used in the original report and one that Moore really objected to. It was a storm in a teacup as far as we're concerned... and yet... I think Moore's deeper concern is the way his film could be branded untruthful and untrustworthy as a result of stories like CNN's and that's very valid when you consider how cultural debates are conducted.

By the way, Moore's inspired bashing of Blitzer the day before was very entertaining and on target - the mainstream media continues to be weak kneed on Iraq reporting, but it sounds shocking when somebody actually says it out loud as Moore did.

I know this sounds very superficial but I just wonder if Moore's arguments in 'Sicko' might carry more 'weight' if he lost some himself.

The film's very good by the way and the audience I saw it with was gasping, tut-tutting and finally applauding at the end.

[Cal]

CNN link shows an edited report. Michael Moore's site points to the unedited version. Guess which one is better?!
http://www.michaelmoore.com/

[Kirit Desai]

Cal, thanks for the Larry King Show clips.

Michael Moore had clear edge over Sanjay Gupta. However, the real issue (a dismal state of US Health care) remained on the back-burner when Gupta was wrapped up in discussion of waiting time again. Moore said it right that profit making part for the middle man should be eliminated in order to provide affordable good health care for all Americans as they do in many other nations.

Gupta chose to praise the work of Moore but wasted the time on showing that who had better cherry-picking fun on the statistical data from various sources. The problem is with the sources where most fudging on data takes place. We will hear a lot about health care issue but no one is ready to fix it in Washington yet.

Kirit Desai

[Dr. Walter Rohloff, MD]

I am a physician and I tried to leave a comment on Sanjay's CNN blog about his meeting with Michael Moore - it didn't make into the comments. Let me share it with you:

Dear Dr. Gupta,
I have seen both Michael Moore's recent interview with Wolf Blitzer and later with Larry King and yourself and I feel that your review on CNN was quite unfair and it would serve you well to admit its shortcomings. You have nowhere made a convincing argument that Michael Moore indeed "fudged the facts" as you claim. If your presentation about mildly different health care cost estimates in the USA or CUBA that you and Moore have found should justify "fudged facts", it would only be one more of the trivial nit pickings that hardly matter in comparison to your own distortions (like calling universal health care as it exists elsewhere a "Utopia" and "not truly free") and omissions (Not to talk about the humane and financial benefits of Universal Health Care ) . Instead, your "fact check" parades a conservative hit man for the health for profit industry as an "expert - only associated with Vanderbilt University" and allows him to make unreferenced claims against the film that are hilariously misleading or plain false. I have grown up in Germany under the universal health care system there and worked and studied medicine in Great Britain for many years and can well confirm that Michael Moore's film presents no "utopia" and that indeed basic health care is unrestricted and rapidly available for everyone. Your "fact check" again repeats the false litany preached to the public by greedy insurers and uninformed doctors about the "long waiting times" in Canada, England, Germany etc. without mentioning that waiting time for emergency access is shorter than in the USA and longer mainly for non urgent (elective) procedures - and this is quite acceptable. In the USA on the other hand, 47 million uninsured americans cannot get other than emergency medical care no matter how long they wait! The insured rest may also not get it because of a ruthless denial by some HMO cubicle clerk, no matter how long they wait! You even challenged Michael Moore to decide whether he would rather be seen in the USA or elsewhere for cardiac emergency care. As the National Institute of Health has recently concluded, an enormous number of cardiac interventions are done in the USA without proper need and benefit for the patients, possibly because of the wrong kind of incentives. I found the interview with Tony Benn in Michael Moores SICKO the most significant contribution: The British NHS Universal Health Care system was born during and despite the economic hardship of the postwar years because people understood that to take care of each other in such a vital matter as health care should be a human right in an industrialized country - and even Margaret Thatcher never tried to do away with the NHS. I can tell you from my personal experience in Germany and Britain that there are few if any citizens who would want to exchange their Universal Health Care system for some for profit or individualized health care system instead as it is glorified in the USA. America's Health system needs an aggressive overhaul, bold vision and infusion from good examples elsewhere.

I hope you will be part of the wave for a universal health insurance

Dr. Walter Rohloff, MD, Albuquerque

[Sharon Jenson]

Michael Moore’s letter to CNN prompted me to do the
same:

Dear CNN:

Dr Guptas’ report of Sicko was useless and I listened
with an open mind. He said nothing useful except that
Michael Moore rounded up a number to 7,000. Way to go
doctor! You found a mistake! I am offended that he
suggested Michael Moore was unfairly leading the
American public to believe things that are untrue and
feeding us falsehoods. I am not a person naive and
stupid enough to believe whatever is fed to me. I
research as much as possible.

Michael Moore represents so many Americans and he can
speak for me anytime. A doctor (who practices in
America) to argue government run health care? How
stupid do you think Americans are? Highly overpaid
doctors should not represent most of America, as you
are far from the majority. I am 40, a divorced mother
of one, and I have no health care. However, I don’t
want it. I will choose, instead, to wait for free
government health care and hope that it will soon be
the standard here in America.

We Americans have paid for far too many fat salaries,
coverage we cannot use, and overpriced prescriptions
which all contribute to the wealthy getting wealthier,
while the working class American must lose a loved one
so that insurance execs can purchase another yacht,
get another costly divorce, or reserve the hottest new
sports car to feed their shallow souls.

I will be starting a letter-writing campaign to
request that CNN offer the truth about our health care
system in this country. Please include the government
officials who enjoy the perks thrown to them by those
all-too-important lobbys in Washington.

Why DON’T you try to pick Moore’s movie apart, piece
by bloody piece? Don’t skim over it briefly with no
information like your doctor did. Really try to prove
him wrong! Why won’t you? And for heaven’s sake, get a
conscience and apologize to a man who, like Al Gore,
is just trying to raise awareness for a very important
issue.

Why can’t we ever seem to expose the fat, greedy,
wealthy people scooping up all the pennies in this
country? Does money really matter that much to that
many selfish people that you’d rather all Americans
remain clueless and quiet? Don’t complicate things,
simplify. What is the worst that could happen? You’d
lose an advertiser or two? Maybe you’d even get a call
from Bush! Don’t worry, he’s the dumbest American of
all and I am quite sure HE is willing to accept any
hot air you blow in his direction.

Sharon Jenson

Now, here are some facts I was able to dig up:

Fortune 500s Most Profitable Companies of 2007 include
drug companies, insurance companies, and oil
companies.

Drug companies block generic forms of their pricey
meds, costing the sick tem times more than they should
have to pay to be well.

In Brazil, they offer generic drugs to HIV/AIDS
patiens; costing $300/year per patient. In America we
spend $10 to $12,000 per patient per year.

Bush appointed a former CEO of a drug company, Ely
Lily, as head of our Global AIDS Initiative.

And, Adolf Hitler once said, “How fortunate for
governments that the people they administer don’t
think”.

Thankfully, in the last month the stocks of the health
care companies are going down, they are in reverse.
Could it be “Sicko”?

And please, don’t anyone else comment back to me that
Michael Moore is trying to push socialized medicine.
His motives are completely of a good nature. He has
good intentions; he tries to raise awareness. And
don’t comment on the fact that this issue was already
an issue & didn’t need pointing out — NOT TRUE! I for
one have learned a lot and not just from the movie.
I’ve done my own research & I suggest every American
do the same!

Thank you for reading this.

Sharon Jenson