They Said They Would Push Me "Off a Cliff" ...a letter from Michael Moore

Wednesday, November 17th, 2010

Friends,

Yesterday, on the TV and radio show "Democracy Now" hosted by Amy Goodman, the former Vice President of CIGNA, one of the nation's largest health insurance companies, revealed that CIGNA met with the other big health insurers to hatch a plan to "push" yours truly "off a cliff."

The interview contains new revelations about just how frightened the health industry was that "Sicko" might ignite a public wave of support for "socialized medicine." So the large health insurance companies came together over a common cause: Stop the American people from going to see "Sicko" -- and the way to do that was to cause some form of harm to me (either personally, professionally or...physically?).

Take a look at this stunning section of the interview with Wendell Potter:

WENDELL POTTER : ...We were concerned that the movie <"Sicko"> would be as successful as "Fahrenheit 9/11" had been. And we knew that if it were, it really would change public opinion about our health care system in ways that would be harmful to the profits of health insurers. So, it was very important for this campaign to succeed. At one point during a strategy meeting, one of the people from APCO said that if our efforts, our initial efforts, were not successful, then we'd have to move to an element of the campaign to push Michael Moore off a cliff. And not meaning to do that literally, but to—

AMY GOODMAN: Are you sure?

WENDELL POTTER: Well, I'm not sure. To tell you the truth, when I started doing what I'm doing , I was concerned about my own health and well-being, maybe just from paranoia. But these companies play to win. And we're talking about some big bucks at stake here—billions and billions and billions of dollars.

AMY GOODMAN: So what were they talking about when they said, "If this doesn't work, we're going to push him off the cliff"?

WENDELL POTTER: Well, it would be just an incredibly intense PR effort, if necessary, to spend more premium dollars to defame Michael Moore, to discredit him even more as a filmmaker.

AMY GOODMAN: So, were you doing research on him?

WENDELL POTTER: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: You were going—personally?

WENDELL POTTER: Well, I was a part of the effort. I didn't—that was part of the reason for hiring APCO and to work with a trade association, is that it relieved me of the responsibility of doing that kind of work. You paid for it to be done by people who were experts in doing that kind of research.

AMY GOODMAN: But they were doing an investigation into him personally?

WENDELL POTTER: Well, absolutely. We knew as much about him probably as he knows about himself.

AMY GOODMAN: About his wife, about his kid, about—

WENDELL POTTER: Oh, yeah. You know, it's important to know everything that you might be able to use in some kind of a campaign against someone, to discredit them professionally and often personally.

AMY GOODMAN: And did you use that?

WENDELL POTTER: You use it if necessary.

The interview goes on as Potter reveals how his front group was able to get its talking points and smears into stories in the New York Times and CNN. It is a chilling look inside how easy it is to manipulate our mainstream media -- and just how worried the health insurance companies were that the American people might demand a true universal health care system.

In particular, Potter talks about how they may have succeeded in influencing CNN to run a factually untrue story about "Sicko" by its reporter, Sanjay Gupta (which led to my infamous encounter with Wolf Blitzer and later, an apology from CNN for getting their facts wrong).

Potter believes his work to defame "Sicko" succeeded, as the film didn't end up posting "Fahrenheit 9/11" grosses. To be clear, "Sicko" went on to become the 3rd largest grossing documentary of all time at that point. And as the release of "Sicko" in June of 2007 was the first time since the defeat of Hillary Clinton's healthcare bill in 1994 that the issue of health insurance was brought to the forefront of the national media, I believe it helped to reignite the issue during the 2008 election year by exposing millions of Americans to the truth about the health insurance industry. More than one person on Capitol Hill will admit that "Sicko" was a big help in rallying public support for the compromise bill that eventually passed earlier this year. But I agree, their smear campaign was effective and did create the dent they were hoping for -- single payer and the public option never even made it into the real discussion on the floor of Congress.

(There was really only one reason "Sicko" didn't sell as many tickets as "Fahrenheit" and that was because of a felony that was committed -- a felony that I will discuss for the first time on this site in the coming weeks or months ahead. Stay tuned.)

Please read or watch the entire interview with Wendell Potter. It's a fascinating peek behind the curtain of how corporate America really runs this country. And how if any of us get in their way, then those people must be stopped. It begs the question: Seeing how there's more of us than there are of them, how long will we let their takeover of our democracy continue?

God Bless the Ruling Class,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

P.S. Over the next few days I will continue this examination of the Wendell Potter revelations on "Democracy Now" and in his new book. Please check in to my website.

Health care still needs reforming.

n/t.

stifling the truth, intelligent conversation and democratic debate, is what gives them power. Hopefully the hell they help spawn will one day give them a well deserved wake up call, but I doubt they posses enough conscience to ever appreciate the consequences of their own selfish malevolence...

Unless "clique" is a coy reference to repukes.

They post here in surprising large numbers.

It is either personality based little groups that go around un-reccing or we have organized efforts at havoc, either PR based or cabals of conservatives as those that were reported on in Digg.

it then metastasizes into the minds of other small groups that eventual form into larger groups. Cliques - when one bad apple joins another - are very much a part of it, and they know they can spoil the whole barrel.

of late. He dares to speak critically of Obama Policy, so there are several here who sneer and mock and pretend Moore is an enemy of the people.

He is a HERO of the People

The political class must be kept in check no matter the designation. MM is a trusted figure for accomplishing that.

in sociology class in high school and i noticed right away that he stood with the people

He's been fighting the good fight for progressive ideas.

I find that there are two groups of people that trash Michael Moore, the first are professional opinion makers that do so broadly and often use shoddy information.

The second are those that have bought into bad propaganda or false equivalency arguments.

And unfortunately, the UN gives this kind of power to people here who will

go to extreme lengths to end any criticism of Obama --

Michael Moore gave us one of our best chances to move towards Universal Health

Care for All Americans. Obama trampled that opportunity with back door deals

with Big Pharma -- to prevent Medicare negotiation on drug costs -- and with

private health care industry to insure that single-payer would not be on the table!!

We have the wrong guy in the White House, folks!!!


Can we draft someone for president?

:kick:

The irony here is that whether Sicko did work or not, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/20/new-poll-77-percent-suppo_n_264375.html">somewhere around (+/-) 75% of the country wanted a public option. But it didn't matter because these fascist insurance companies had already purchased themselves a passel of Congresscritters with our premium money. So they ended up with even more of our money. Truly change we can believe in.

Whether we want to believe in it, or not.

it was so blatant.. they claimed they were "mistaken"... yeah, we knew better, and once again we are proved right.

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One of the sleaziest members of the compliant entertainment/news media --

though I think he and John Stossel are in a tie for the title "sleaziest" -- ???

Obama asks CNN's Sanjay Gupta to be next surgeon general

The popular television personality, a practicing neurosurgeon, reportedly would be provided a broader portfolio to make wellness, fitness and healthcare reform a top priority.

January 07, 2009|Noam N. Levey and Matea Gold

WASHINGTON AND NEW YORK — President-elect Barack Obama has asked Dr. Sanjay Gupta to be the next U.S. surgeon general, looking to a popular television personality to help provide a public face for his healthcare agenda.

Best known as a health and medicine correspondent for CNN and CBS, Gupta, 39, is a practicing neurosurgeon in Atlanta and a member of the faculty at the Emory University School of Medicine.

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jan/07/nation/na-surgeon-general-gupta7

Either appointed or invited to something???

I'll try to check --

But, lucky that Obama/Gupta thing didn't happen -- the guy is the pits of

dishonesty and sleaze!

helping to try to destroy MM's educational movie?

Anyone who has not seen Sicko, should go watch it. Everything in that movie proved to be true.

There are good guys and bad guys, MM is one of the good guys. I had hopes that when we got a Democratic majority and the WH, the good guys would be promoted. Instead, the opposite happened.

Sicko can be seen in its entirety at this site: http://freedocumentaries.org/film.php?id=133

:(

twice before. But it seems it's not available there anymore.

along with a link to his statements at the time, and asked for an explanation. Gupta found it easy to slime Michael, lets see if he finds it as easy to slime Wendell Potter.

I'm beyond tired of the circus that we call media.

Listening to Hartmann today -- he wasn't there and someone else covering --

and this is only one bit of this takeover, but the fill in host was talking about

Obama's deal with South Korea on a new trade deal and evidently we're trying to

push American cars in there -- SK doesn't want them because they violate their

health and safety standards!! We're pushing it anyway, which is simply another way

to bring standards down all over the world and push more capitalism and pollution --

more Global Warming! And more pro-corporate nations until, finally, the nation is

the corporation!!

But, here's the really amazing part -- in the discussions as reported by the conservative

Bloomberg news, details couldn't be discussed because the negotiations were PRIVATE!!!

Our treaties are now something not for the public to be aware of and debate -- but

simply deals made beteween corporate elites over the heads of governments!!

Interesting comments about how these trade deals destroy our national sovereignty. That happens to be true.

The issue that links Michael Moore and Sicko to the trade deals is the role of corporations in twisting public opinion.

Media Matters does a lot to educate us about the tricks being used on us.

But we need to do a lot more to fight back against the public relations industry's manipulation of public opinion in favor of corporations and really bad things like "free trade."

They also tried to get SK to lower it's policy on beef. They won't allow older cows because of Mad Cow disease. They didn't budge but it makes me wonder what kind of pressure they will use now to force them. I don't like my government trying to subvert other democracies' standards for the sake of American business. What does it say to other countries?
And what does it say about this president...

We know.

n/t

Maybe the trip he takes to Cuba in the movie? Hope it's something more nefarious on the part of the corporate crooks employed by the crooked insurance companies.

great work MIKE.... time to SHARE THEIR APPROACH...

they pay MONEY to SHUT YOU DOWN.... RELEASE THE MOVIE RIGHTS AND GET THAT SICKO THINK VIRAL (PUN INTENDED)

the health industry is out to drain us dry. I know doctors who have to pay a thousand a month for simple health care insurance. The problem began when the 'insurance' industry came into it. Seems to me 12,000 a year could more than pay for a few pediatric visits and shots etc. Also did you hear on Thom Hartmann the story he told about the Dr. and the MRI. They were charging the insurance 1500 for an MRI and if you just walk in and pay for one it costs 365. We can only fix this with really big revolutionary change, not the fiddling with insurance that all the Congress wants to do

I tell them that powerful corporations and their CEOs will stoop to anything, including murder, to achieve their goals.

edit spelling

knr!

And about that takeover of our democracy...

I fear it is a fait accompli.:shrug:

Why not?

I would, however, have no problem believe the Bush Family, Cheney, Rumsfeld

and a long string of Repugs, however, guilty of multiple felonies!!

and I live in Canada...Michale Moore is a very, very brave man....I have been following him since ROGER AND ME.

I was born in USA but now a Canadian citizen.....I know what it is like to have your family have cancer. Both my son and husband had it and they fought and died from it. They had all the treatments and there was no Health care bills...I am retired, and I retired at 57....I live comfortably for a widow of a blue collar worker.

My brother lives in the USA ..His nickname is BUBBA and he a real redneck now ..Lives on the east coast and hates Obama . All he listens to is Limbaugh and Fox News....and all their lies.

I have come to the point that I feel I don't want to even talk with him...He has so much hate in him. His daughter makes over $100 k for a military contractor and yet she says she doesn't want to pay for anyone else's health care.

My brother is proud to not know about any countries history, people or customs yet he wants the USA to be in over 700 military bases because "that's the way it is."

It was Canadian doctors who told me I was half deaf on my left ear. I knew I was deaf on the right ear but thought all my American life that I had all my hearing on my left ear. Amazing what a hearing aid did for me at age 30.

American health care sucks if you can't get it or can't afford it.

You niece said she doesn't want to pay for anyone else's health care; the ironic thing of course is that by her supporting our broken health care system in the U.S., she's sure to do exactly that. Her medical fees are so high in part because the health care providers are trying to make up for all the non-payers.

Each day, 273 people die due to lack of health care in the U.S.; that's 100,000 deaths per year.

We need single-payer health care, not a welfare bailout for the serial-killer insurance agencies.

We don't need the GingrichCare of mandated, unregulated, for-profit insurance that is still too expensive, only pays parts of medical bills, denies claims, bankrupts and kills people.

Republinazi '93 plan:

"Subtitle F: Universal Coverage - Requires each citizen or lawful permanent resident to be covered under a qualified health plan or equivalent health care program by January 1, 2005."

"Any proposal that sticks with our current dependence on for-profit private insurers ... will not be sustainable. And the new law will not get us to universal coverage ...." -- T.R. Reid, The Healing of America

It's the non-stop lying propaganda.

"Lives on the east coast and hates Obama . All he listens to is Limbaugh and Fox News....and all their lies."

It's actually encouraging to know not all countries are as effed up as we are.

Micheal is one of the bravest patriots that America has.

Although his dalliance with Nader in 2000 was irritating! :mad:

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is suicidal for nature and humanity --

Rather it is the commonwealth and NOT monetary profits we should be seeking --

Those profits create a class of elites who seek power over us --

What we all want is universal enrichment of our lives which comes from freely

seeking education and information, our experiences with nature -- the study

of nature and plants as our nourishment and our medicines --

and a closer connection to nature -- free from exploitation of nature and

animal-life. A commonwealth enriches all our lives -- concepts of private

control over nature and humanity destroys life.

Guess who was invited to the WH summit and guess who P. Obama called on to make a statement, the association who adopted a game plan to discredit Moore and his movie SICKO.

President Obama calls on Karen Ignagni of AHIP to speak on HC reform
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...


And Ron Williams was invited to the HC discussions in Congress as well...

"BILL MOYERS: You wrote a column with the headline, "Obama's false friends of health reform." You use as a prime example a man named Ron Williams, who is at the top of the list of insurance executives in terms of their compensation. We actually saw Ron Williams at President Obama's Town Hall meeting."

Shameful!

and Dr. Angell's statement who was not invited to the WH.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8522721&mesg_id=8524171

Dr. Angell

http://edlabor.house.gov/documents/111/pdf/testimony/20090610MarciaAngellTestimony.pdf

"...Our health care system, then, is outrageously expensive, yet inadequate and
inequitable. How can we account for the paradox of spending more and
getting less? The only plausible explanation is that there’s something about
the system itself – about the way we finance and deliver health care – that’s
enormously wasteful.

The underlying problem, I believe, is that we, alone among OECD countries,
rely on a market-based system for health care. In fact, it’s not a system at
all, but a hodge-podge of different commercial arrangements that exist more
or less independently from one another. The other countries all have
national health systems. Some are single-payer arrangements, which means
that all health care funds, whatever their source, are funneled through a
single public agency, which then coordinates the distribution of resources.
Some have multiple payers, but the system is tightly regulated so that
everyone is covered, and prices and benefits are uniform.

Most of our other problems stem from that decision to treat health care like a
market commodity instead of a social service. Thus, we distribute it not
according to medical need, but according to the ability to pay. But there’s a
great mismatch between medical need and the ability to pay. In fact, those
with the greatest need are precisely those least able to pay. So while markets
are good for many things, they’re not a good way to distribute health care.
People who are well insured may get an MRI they don’t need (and overuse
of tests is a major contributor to cost inflation), while people without
insurance may not get an MRI they do need.

Furthermore, successful markets expand; they don’t contract. Businesses
aim to increase revenues and maximize profits..."

Great comments by Dr. Angell -- there's a humanist!

Capitalism is suicidal -- for the planet and for humans --

it is simply EXPLOITATION of both!

Of course, those influencing our government rarely sound like Dr. Angell!!

MEDICARE FOR ALL would save the government huge amounts of money --

and would create 2.3 million jobs.



:)

town hall meeting at the WH.

:(

It seems immensely obvious to me that someone like Dr. Angell would be

avoided by the WH -- shunned!!

Sadly -- !!!

how hard did they really try when they silenced people who could have helped fight for universal care.

:(

that there would be NO single payer --

and with Big Pharma that there would be NO Medicare negotiation on drug prices --


Don't know if you saw this ... ???

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/defendandprotect

First article -- be sure to also read "Rahm 'crowing" .... "


It was worse than not trying --

Democrats should have been called out to demonstrate for MEDICARE FOR ALL ---

Dems should have been distributing buttons -- "MEDICARE FOR ALL"

We desperately need Medicare to be extended to children -- and to adults up to 57 ....

just for starters!!



:)

D&P, they don't care about us, do they?

of actual health care --

The wealthier our Congress gets -- the less they care, IMO -- !!

I am 54 years old. I read Rachel Carson's Silent Spring when I was 13 years old. When I finished her iconic treatise, I made two fundamental decisions: 1) I would not bear children, and 2) I would be an activist for the rest of my life. I am so glad that I achieved both those goals, especially considering where humanity finds itself at present...

During my brief tenure on this planet, I've witnessed:

--the heavy metal pollution of this planet's groundwater

--the nationwide existence of 'Superfund Sites' that are so toxic, massive amounts of our tax dollars have been allocated to 'clean up' these abandoned, hazardous areas (visit Superfund websites and you'll find "Superfund for Kids!")

--an exponential increase in diabetes, heart disease, and other diseases directly linked to the consumption of refined sugars (let's not even BEGIN to discuss hydrogenated oils...)

--the 'War on Drugs' (an ironic ploy that benefits the uber wealthy in two primary ways: more money, more money, more money; and keeping the hoi polloi distracted and addicted)

--a pile of floating garbage--in surface area, the size of the state of Texas--in the doldrums of the Pacific Ocean

--a measurable decline in the amount of food fish we pull out of our oceans and lakes

--the steady decline of the honeybee population worldwide (called "Colony Collapse Disorder" by the scientists who are 'struggling' to identify the causes)

--a growing percentage of adults (as of the 90s, this figure was forty percent) who are functionally illiterate (thus, easily manipulated)

--a now ubiquitous 'message delivery system' (television) that has turned a significant number of humans into distracted, misinformed zombies

--a toxic, dangerous economic system that has concentrated the wealth of this planet into the hands of a miniscule fraction of our planet's global population (writing the representative percentage requires scientific notation, and a double-digit negative exponent).

--destructive, endless 'wars' based on lies and profitability (and, don't even get me started about Depleted Uranium)

--a radical shift to exponential growth (read 'change') that few recognize and even fewer discuss.

Sigh...

I don't have time to list all of the other issues I've been witnessing. This would take weeks, if not months.

I'm watching as more and more of us resort to 'react' mode, letting our inchoate fears and frustrations manifest as road rage, name-calling, sarcasm, and other forms of mental, emotional and physical violence. Do I think we humans are experiencing a critical tipping point in our evolution as a species? You bet. Do I think we can do anything about it? I'm becoming increasingly skeptical.

I have been trying to get my certification to be a teacher, but I'm wondering if I should just cash in all my meager retirement accounts now, and move in with a friend who owns forty acres in rural Arkansas. I have already collected heirloom seeds for many of the fruits and veggies that I love, and I know how to split wood, use coal oil lamps, field dress any animal, can or pressure-can any consumable you can name, discern edible wildings, and purify creek water. I am within six points of 'Expert' with both pistols and rifles (though I prefer not to handle a shotgun). I could survive this imminent crisis...

The question becomes, given the near ubiquitous expressions of interpersonal violence manifest in most of humanity today, do I have any interest in struggling to survive through the next two decades in this, my twilight years on the planet?

That's the $64,000 question...

so hard against the public option and a national healthcare plan to begin with.

Rather than preserving all life on the planet and nature -- and the enrichment of

our bodies and minds -- we have lives based on accumulating dollar bills!

We have to stop judging everything by the yardstick of a dollar bill --

As many have long pointed out -- You can't eat a dollar bill, you can't plant it --

the accumulation of wealth permits the accumulation of illegitimate power over others.

They have added so many layers of costs to the system, the system has begun producing costs itself that were not inherent in the design.

Black holes have less gravity than the healthcare industry in this country.
Just mentioning that there is going to be a new restriction on how a corporate healthcare provider is supposed to account for providing healthcare creates a firestorm of healthcare "experts" shouting it down.

The haters on the right have been shouting down Michael Moore for over 25 years, but they can't get him to shut up.
Even if he is fat, rude, hasn't shaved, or is obnoxious and says something untoward about tutus, they can't keep a good man down.

but love Michael Moore -- and worry that some day they might actually

push him "off a cliff" -- !!

There are millions of people who love you and have your back.

:kick:

k&r

Evidenced by how much he unnerves repukes.

the campaign against Michael Moore and Sicko that Wendell Potter describes.

Interesting. These campaigns are not obvious, not like the Outfoxed movie or a lot of the straightforward criticism of Fox News.

No, these campaigns run under the radar. The criticism is cloaked as though it was being made by some legitimate source, maybe an organization or entity with a name that sounds like it is independent. In fact, these campaigns are well orchestrated based on consumer research.

Michael Moore is not the only potential victim of this sort of psyops to physical attack.

We have seen a couple of members of the Obama administration nearly destroyed by these tactics.

Yet, Karl Rove and Fox News continue to exist -- unscathed.

Gosh, do we have a lot to learn about public relations.

John Edwards-he was always my candidate, because he was the ONLY one who ever said the word "poverty"
That woman he hooked up with is sooo shady-who knows if it wasn't a setup? And Eliot Spitzer? The day after he writes that op-ed exposing the illegal activities of the "Banksters" he gets busted.
And countless other progressive Dems-who were either destroyed by scandal, or "suicided"

I have my opinions about what goes on with that but don't want to go off on a tangent.

:crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy:

Edwards was the only one -- other than Kucinich -- whose speeches were full of

populist ideas -- in fact, I really thought his wife, Elizabeth, would have been

the better candidate! But I loked them both.

I kinda look at it as a set up -- just in case he had been able to go the distance --

they would have had something on him.

Think that's true of all the candidates TPB put forward -- ultimately they have a way

to control them. Though Edwards at the time was more of the real deal than most --

except Kucinich!

Same with Elliot Spitzer -- have long admired him and think his rise to Governor

worried many. He had organized governors to try to stop the liar loans and what they

could see would be foreclosures. Bush put a stop to it. And, I think the "scandal"

was intended to put a permanent stop to Spitzer and all of his efforts.

Agree with you all the way -- liberal leadership is one way or the other eliminated

now before it even has a chance to rise.

They still have to make them look bad, so people aren't enraged about it (JFK?). Then there's people like Moore and Kucinich, maybe Bernie Sanders, who they just can't find anything on (not for lack of trying). Yet, when we say this stuff, we either sound like crybabies, or paranoid!

The affection for JFK and the sorrow over that event has continued on and on --

GOp had to do something!

I'm always concerned that they will strike out at those we do have like Moore,

Kucinich and Sanders --

It's so important the truth they bring forward --

There's so much right wing political violence now over the last 50 plus years --

just really out in the open -- that IMO it's laughable that anyone would still

suggest this is "conspiracy-free" America!


:)

K & R!

ever see this? Do you think he knows and doesn't care? Do you think he is on the wrong side? Do you think he knows and cares, but doesn't think there is anything that he can do? Do you have another option?

300th rec!

One thing: there are more of us than of them, the problem is they have various and sundry ways of killing us, and they're using them everyday. Denial of care in one form or another gets rid of all those pesky people wanting to use the insurance they've paid into for years/decades.

what an idiot!