SiCKO & MooreWatch.com

In English, Sosial

I found out the outrage about SiCKO rather late, to be precise, on how Michael Moore donated to MooreWatch.com, thus helping the webmaster to recover from his financial problems.

What I found a bit funny (and sad at times) is how he accuses Moore of misleading people, while he’s been contradicting himself several times, found just within a few minutes of viewing his website :

He goes on to say the site was in trouble “because his wife was ill, and they could no longer afford to pay for her health insurance.” Now, that’s a half-truth at best.

But then he said :

Of all those things, the most immediate and the easiest to lose (Ed: to offset the financial problems) was the dedicated server

To me, that’s indeed the definition of “the site was in trouble”.
This he does several times, and I feel sorry for him.

Personally I don’t think that Michael Moore is flawless. It should be visible from various live interviews clips on Internet (and you’ll find plenty of it on MooreWatch.com for sure). However, he tend to put up clarifications later on his website, such as here and here.
That, in my book, is good.

MooreWatch.com also took an opportunity to show how bad the Cuban healthcare really is. Well, I wonder if they ever heard the phrase beauty is only skin deep ?

Among the best healthcare my wife & our child ever received was in a hospital similar to that portrayed in that posting. The hospital was very old, it’s dark, dim, looks very outdated (did we mention that it’s old?), dirty in places (not in the patients’ places though), and so on.
But my wife was handled by the best doctor we know, the nurses are kind and most understanding, and both my wife & our child simply had the best care. And the cost was very reasonable. They have yet to enjoy similar level of quality care again to this day.

By contrast, my mother was taken by my father to (among) the most expensive hospital in Jakarta when she was about to deliver my youngest brother. Everything is shiny, gorgeous, beautiful, flashy.
However, she was scared by the doctors there, at the time when she was most vulnerable, into staying longer than necessary, so the bill will end up much higher than it should. She was pissed off when she found out about it, and the service was not that good too.

Don’t be deceived by looks. I thought the intellectuals in MooreWatch.com would have understood this, but anyway.

Personally, I hate sensationalist journalism, and it’s quite clear that there are elements of it in Moore’s movies.
However, I also understand that we don’t live in Utopia, that people’s skulls can be pretty thick, and a bit of sensationalism can sometimes help to drive the message home.

What really matters is the point. If the sensationalism is just being used as the “spices”, without distracting from the main point, or rendering it pointless, then I’ll tolerate it.

This is the case with Moore’s movies.

The movies raised topics which otherwise would be buried deep and hidden beneath the US gov’t propaganda. Gun control, nationalism (or was it fascism), expensive and broken health “care” system (well at least in UK it’s just “broken”), and so on.
Moore bravely, and effectively, challenges those who has oppressed the American and citizen of the world; the very very rich and the US gov’t. For that, he has my gratitude.

To the MooreWatch.com webmaster – you can still do better, make it even more useful to the people. Blindly just obliging to the intellectual aspect of something is losing sight to the bigger picture, and this is just what the oppressors wants us to do.
I wish you all the best.

40 thoughts on “SiCKO & MooreWatch.com”

  1. Do you even know what a contradiction is? The two statements you quote do not contradict each other, if you bothered to read the posts I made. The fact that we couldn’t afford the insurance was the half-truth. We were never going to lose that insurance…just the server. I never claimed otherwise. You just pulled a Moore yourself. You took something out of context, misquoted it and then drew a false conclusion. It’s the sneakiest kind of lie.

    As for the rest…it’s your opinion and you’re entitled to it.

  3. @Jim – You said We were never going to lose that insurance…just the server. Exactly, you kept on saying (including on other posts) that the website is safe, while then you acknowledged several times as well that the server is actually in danger of being decommissioned :
    .

    Of all those things, the most immediate and the easiest to lose (Ed: to offset the financial problems) was the dedicated server.

    .
    I wasn’t talking about the insurance fyi. Even though personally I think a premium of US$ 1000 / month is still gonna kill most people’s savings, disabling them from doing much of anything else. (especially not such a website as popular as MooreWatch.com).
    .
    Anyway, it is easy to fell into a nationalist’ way of thinking, most people have been guilty about it at a time. But we need to realize that we’re all the same, human being. Even when we are citizens of different nations & have different governments, we need to look at our interests as a whole.
    Then it’ll be easier to see the fault of our governments, and start correcting them.
    .
    Of course, once the aliens made their first contact, then we’ll need to broaden our interest to include them as well (as dwellers of the same gaalxy? Welcome Star trek federation 🙂 )
    .
    Joking aside, take care.

  4. Nice shoot, Mas..
    I never know what the truth behind the SiCKO or any other movie from more. But as a usual citizen, i look Moore have otherside opinion that make sense.

    I like him from the “F 9/11”. Otherwise, opinion just opinion, we could fight back opinion with some good related opinion also.

    I think JimK know what i mean. JimK and Moore just 2 people that fight for opinion. But Moore look more honest than JimK. But i believe JimK know what the (honest) truth one. I can see from some opinion on his site 🙂

    Fiuhh.. cape make basa Londo…
    Om Fehmi penggemar Moore ya?
    Sama dong.
    Dah baca ancaman Moore untuk CNN?

  5. Very nice. As an Indonesian i’m very pleased with this post about The Movie “Sicko” Mr. Sufehmi. Your English is so fine, Just Keep Up The Good Work…

  6. This is an easy, albeit late one.

    Easy because I also think Sicko is smooth craftsmanship as well as investigating journalism. One may say the movie is not quite free of populism, but then is nothing compared to the combined efforts of the Bush regime and the likes of Murdoch.

    But what’s really important is that Moore shows clearly that the US lacks elementary safeguards for the poor and even for the middle classes. What is possible in GB (although Michael Moore exaggerates the qualities of the National Health Service), in France (although the beauty of the Public Health system is rather less than shown in the picture – and getting worth by the present Sargozy administration) and, say, Scandinavian countries, should be possible in the US as well.

    PS: Being an Bahassa Indonesia illiterate, I’m looking forward to your next post in English. That’s why I landed on my first ( and absolutely not the last) visit on this great post dating from mid july last year.

  7. @colson – indeed, have you read my post about the trillion dollars spent on Iraq? They can use that money to drastically fix their health system instead.
    .
    Being a crazy cowboy & disillusioned (he thinks God speaks through him, ack), of course Bush didn’t do that.
    .
    I found it most interesting that the Scandinavian countries seems to care the most for their citizen’s welfare.
    A lot of my colleagues back in the Birmingham City Council does too, but sometimes there were still people up above (and down) blocking them.
    In Indonesia, there are less of them, and the opposition are far stronger too. Very sad.
    .
    By the way, I just checked my English posts, and it seemed that I haven’t do that much lately.
    Thanks for the reminder. Although with my current schedule (most of the weekends I work at my client’s site, and many times I work through the night, etc) I can’t promise anything. But I do intend to carry on with this bridge blogging stuff.
    .
    Thanks.

  8. harry, komentar si thetruth itu spam lho.

    lalu gue baru nonton sicko, dan sepertinya memang indonesia saingan sama amerika soal biaya kesehatan ini. :))

  9. @ryosaeba – wah iya, thanks.
    .
    akhir-akhir ini makin banyak spam yang berhasil nembus spam karma 2. Dan dr. dave tidak ada rencana untuk melanjutkannya lagi ya ? 🙁
    .
    soal kesehatan – indonesia memang edan. Sudah mahal, dan seringkali obat yang diberikan justru bukan solusi.
    .
    Banyak keluarga saya yang sudah beralih ke solusi alami. Misal; untuk diabetes dengan buah mahoni. Darah tinggi dengan belimbing. Dst.
    Tapi ini musti hati-hati, karena penipuannya banyak banget.

  10. “What really matters is the point.”

    Hahaha. Oh, that old canard. I’m looking too close at Michael Moore’s work. All I see are a thousand little lies. I need to step back and watch them blend into a “greater truth”.

    But a thousand lies never equal truth. You just happen to agree with his conclusions because you’re politically left (I can tell this because 90% of your post is inciting class warfare and whining about capitalism and you see oppression everywhere EXCEPT in socialism/communism) even though none of the reasoning or evidence he uses to get there is solid.

    Sorry, but it’s not really appropriate for any part of the hospital to be filthy or uncared for, even if the doctors are more likeable.

  11. I can tell this because 90% of your post is inciting class warfare and whining about capitalism and you see oppression everywhere EXCEPT in socialism/communism.

    .
    .
    really? you can read and speak indonesian language too?
    .
    remember, “a thousand lies never equal truth.” 🙂

  14. Well , I my case there are things that Michael Moore believes in that I both agree and disagree.

    And I agree , I think he uses sensationalist journalism to attract more people into watching his documentaries , maybe he does this because if he uses a more realistic ( and unfortunately more staid) format people might think its boring and will not be interested in watching this.

    And maybe because its based on his POV it becomes a bit one sided because it will ultimately favor the side of the argument he’s on.

  15. I think that’s one of the main objectives of sensationalist journalism… to draw out a response may it be positive or negative. It’s one of their methods so that they’ll draw in more attention.

    And of course the side the piece will be siding will be that of it’s creator. So what Michale Moore favors will always be depicted as the right and moral side and everything opposite to it will be considered wrong and at times immoral.

  16. Just wanna say good job for your work by this posts on insurance issues. We invite you to visit us on our insurance advertising blog. Appreciated for your feedback on us too. Thanks Harry!

  17. This movie has raised a lot of questions for me. I have no intention to think thatit is as cut and dry a Moore makes you think, but I di have to wonderm why are we so behind the times, as oppsed to other contires? and why do things cost soo much more here than other countrys?

  19. Very nice. As an Indonesian i’m very pleased with this post about The Movie “Sicko” Mr. Sufehmi. Your English is so fine. I’m looking too close at Michael Moore’s work. All I see are a thousand little lies. I need to step back and watch them blend into a “greater truth”.

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  22. What really matters is the point. If the sensationalism is just being used as the “spices”, without distracting from the main point, or rendering it pointless, then I’ll tolerate it.

  24. Well , I my case there are things that Michael Moore believes in that I both agree and disagree.

    And I agree , I think he uses sensationalist journalism to attract more people into watching his documentaries , maybe he does this because if he uses a more realistic ( and unfortunately more staid) format people might think its boring and will not be interested in watching this.

    Nice Places to Visit and Computer Tutorials and Nice Places to Visit

  25. This movie has raised a lot of questions for me. I have no intention to think thatit is as cut and dry a Moore makes you think, but I di have to wonderm why are we so behind the times, as oppsed to other contires?

  26. Just wanna say good job for your work by this posts on insurance issues. We invite you to visit us on our insurance advertising blog. Appreciated for your feedback on us too. Thanks

  27. I think that’s one of the main objectives of sensationalist journalism… to draw out a response may it be positive or negative. It’s one of their methods so that they’ll draw in more attention.

  28. But a thousand lies never equal truth. You just happen to agree with his conclusions because you’re politically left (I can tell this because 90% of your post is inciting class warfare and whining about capitalism and you see oppression everywhere EXCEPT in socialism/communism) even though none of the reasoning or evidence he uses to get there is solid.
    Sorry, but it’s not really appropriate for any part of the hospital to be filthy or uncared for, even if the doctors are more likeable.

  30. Moore can be annoying and over the top but he covers some very important issues and he gets people to take notice. There are more positives than negatives.

  39. I think Moore has lost the plot lately, he has become a little too commercial for my liking, but I guess he is still relevant and its better to have him voicing his opinion than not.

  40. I think that’s one of the main objectives of sensationalist journalism… to draw out a response may it be positive or negative. It’s one of their methods so that they’ll draw in more attention.

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