Suitably Flip

Important: Read Before Watching SiCKO

Or immediately after.

Or, for best results, read it and then don't see SiCKO at all.

I'm delighted such a thorough and facile rebuttal has emerged even before the documentary (crockumentary? Schlockumentary? Have we settled on a word yet for a mockumentary that thinks it's a documentary?) is officially released (not counting the widespread internet distribution of pirated copies).  In fact, I had asked for a collective rebuttal once those of hardy constitutions had a chance to see the film, in hopes for some measure of remedy to what I brashly assumed would be another dose of Moore's distinctly and snivelingly misleading socialist propaganda.

Seems that, yes, that indeed is the increasingly familiar poison that Moore's peddling here.  Thankfully, the Post's Kyle Smith has penned a serviceable and amusing antidote.

[Note to self: insert additional health care puns here before posting...]

Some highlights from Smith's piece, which get to the heart of Moore's slithery style of logical meandering, data cherry picking, and, well, outright falsification (my emphasis, throughout):

The silliness of Moore’s oeuvre is so self-evident that being able to spot it is not liberal or conservative either; it’s a basic intelligence test, like the ability to match square peg with square hole.
...
The bulk of "Sicko" is given over to the stories of Americans who got the run-around from health insurers. ... Moore’s style is to present whatever information he likes without checking it. He told "Entertainment Weekly" "absolutely not," when asked whether he felt any need to get the other side of the story. So, over time, his work rusts out from within as the facts eat away at it.
...
Here’s how easy it is to lie by anecdote: Say I wanted to make a film about gay black Republicans who live in Chelsea. I find ten of them, make a film about them, and you walk out of the theater thinking: Wow, so many gay black Republicans in Chelsea! The six years it took me to find these ten guys will go unnoted.
...
In his EW interview, Moore tacitly admitted that "Sicko" lies about [typical Canadian health care] wait times, saying, "Well, okay, let’s set up a system where we don’t have the Canadian wait. Let’s set up a system where we take what they do right and don't do the things that we do wrong." Yes, and let's also make sure that every girl gets to be the prettiest girl in town.
...
Moore, at a Havana hospital, says he requested that his group receive exactly the same care as any Cuban who walked in—"and that’s exactly what they got." As comedy, this statement is on a par with the sex scene in "Knocked Up," the chest waxing in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and the moment in "An Inconvenient Truth" when Al Gore tells us that the ecology’s no. 1 enemy, China, is in fact "on the cutting edge" of environmentalism.
...
But Moore solemnly reports Cuba’s official health statistics, which are of course a fiction dreamed up by El Presidente, because Moore's motto is to trust no authority figure from cringing corporate spokesman on up to Washington windbags. Except dictators. Dictators, he’ll take your word for it.
...
Despite his apparent belief that he can seem moderate by narrating the film in a sing-song, I’m-talking-to-a-child-or-moron tone, the man can no more hide his Marxism than his belly. He presents not only [radical British leftist] Tony Benn but Che Guevera’s daughter as voices of sanity and, through a French doctor, Moore sneaks in the Marxist slogan "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." Everyone who has ever lived in a country that put this idea into practice has found that it actually means this: Give the country whatever it asks for and take back whatever it gives you, and do so without complaint or go to prison.

The full review features more specific debunkery and Smith promises more to come on his personal website.

(HT: The Corner)

Comments

Important: Read Before Watching SiCKO

Or immediately after.

Or, for best results, read it and then don't see SiCKO at all.

I'm delighted such a thorough and facile rebuttal has emerged even before the documentary (crockumentary? Schlockumentary? Have we settled on a word yet for a mockumentary that thinks it's a documentary?) is officially released (not counting the widespread internet distribution of pirated copies).  In fact, I had asked for a collective rebuttal once those of hardy constitutions had a chance to see the film, in hopes for some measure of remedy to what I brashly assumed would be another dose of Moore's distinctly and snivelingly misleading socialist propaganda.

Seems that, yes, that indeed is the increasingly familiar poison that Moore's peddling here.  Thankfully, the Post's Kyle Smith has penned a serviceable and amusing antidote.

[Note to self: insert additional health care puns here before posting...]

Some highlights from Smith's piece, which get to the heart of Moore's slithery style of logical meandering, data cherry picking, and, well, outright falsification (my emphasis, throughout):

The silliness of Moore’s oeuvre is so self-evident that being able to spot it is not liberal or conservative either; it’s a basic intelligence test, like the ability to match square peg with square hole.
...
The bulk of "Sicko" is given over to the stories of Americans who got the run-around from health insurers. ... Moore’s style is to present whatever information he likes without checking it. He told "Entertainment Weekly" "absolutely not," when asked whether he felt any need to get the other side of the story. So, over time, his work rusts out from within as the facts eat away at it.
...
Here’s how easy it is to lie by anecdote: Say I wanted to make a film about gay black Republicans who live in Chelsea. I find ten of them, make a film about them, and you walk out of the theater thinking: Wow, so many gay black Republicans in Chelsea! The six years it took me to find these ten guys will go unnoted.
...
In his EW interview, Moore tacitly admitted that "Sicko" lies about [typical Canadian health care] wait times, saying, "Well, okay, let’s set up a system where we don’t have the Canadian wait. Let’s set up a system where we take what they do right and don't do the things that we do wrong." Yes, and let's also make sure that every girl gets to be the prettiest girl in town.
...
Moore, at a Havana hospital, says he requested that his group receive exactly the same care as any Cuban who walked in—"and that’s exactly what they got." As comedy, this statement is on a par with the sex scene in "Knocked Up," the chest waxing in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and the moment in "An Inconvenient Truth" when Al Gore tells us that the ecology’s no. 1 enemy, China, is in fact "on the cutting edge" of environmentalism.
...
But Moore solemnly reports Cuba’s official health statistics, which are of course a fiction dreamed up by El Presidente, because Moore's motto is to trust no authority figure from cringing corporate spokesman on up to Washington windbags. Except dictators. Dictators, he’ll take your word for it.
...
Despite his apparent belief that he can seem moderate by narrating the film in a sing-song, I’m-talking-to-a-child-or-moron tone, the man can no more hide his Marxism than his belly. He presents not only [radical British leftist] Tony Benn but Che Guevera’s daughter as voices of sanity and, through a French doctor, Moore sneaks in the Marxist slogan "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." Everyone who has ever lived in a country that put this idea into practice has found that it actually means this: Give the country whatever it asks for and take back whatever it gives you, and do so without complaint or go to prison.

The full review features more specific debunkery and Smith promises more to come on his personal website.

(HT: The Corner)