News Target - Michael Moore's Sicko documentary project causing preemptive fea

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Thu, 24 Aug 2006 19:07:08 -0400

[sSRI-Research] News Target - Michael Moore's " Sicko "

documentary project causing preemptive fear among drug companies

 

 

 

 

http://www.newstarget.com/020085.html

 

*originally published August 22 2006 *

 

*Michael Moore's " Sicko " documentary project causing preemptive fear

among drug companies*

 

*(NewsTarget) -- Michael Moore's upcoming 2007 documentary " Sicko " --

aimed at the $1.5 trillion healthcare and pharmaceutical industry -- has

mobilized many companies within the medical industry to try to discredit

Moore and the film, AdAge.com reports. *

 

*Moore, who directed such documentaries as " Roger and Me, " " Bowling for

Columbine " -- which won an Academy Award -- and " Fahrenheit 9/11, " says

on his website that he asked the public to send him letters about their

healthcare system experiences, and received more than 19,000 of them. *

 

* " To read about the misery people are put through on a daily basis by

our profit-based system was both moving and revolting, " Moore writes.

The filmmaker says he won't discuss the documentary with the public, but

says, " 'Sicko' is a comedy about 45 million people with no health care

in the richest country on Earth. " *

 

*AdAge.com claims that the pharmaceutical industry is attempting to

discredit Moore's film by trying to spin the filmmaker as biased and

one-sided. Ken Johnson, senior vice president for the Pharmaceutical

Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), says America needs a

" thoughtful and well-researched " investigation into America's healthcare

<http://www.newstarget.com/healthcare.html> problems, and insists

Moore's film won't provide that. *

 

*But consumer health advocate Mike Adams disagrees. " Big Pharma

<http://www.newstarget.com/Big_Pharma.html> is the king of spin and

propaganda, " he says. " And drug companies

<http://www.newstarget.com/drug_companies.html> will paint anything as

'biased' if it doesn't bow down to the lies, distortions and fraud being

promoted by the industry. Big Pharma is not merely afraid of Michael

Moore, they're afraid of anything resembling honest scrutiny or

investigative journalism, " he added. *

 

*Moore says that every family he talks to about healthcare nightmares

suddenly receives free health care when pharmaceutical companies learn

they've spoken to Moore. " There has been a 100 percent success rate of

the people we're filming of getting whatever they need from HMOs,

pharmaceutical companies, whatever, " Moore says. *

 

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