Meghan O’Hara was the producer of “Sicko,” the new Michael Moore film about the state of health care and health insurance in the US.
Her remarks come in response to Republican candidate Mike Huckabee’s suggestions that Michael Moore is a living example of why health care in America costs so much.
Because, you know, rather than answer any of the issues Moore raises it is SO much easier to undermine his credibility because of his weight.
People, I don’t even LIKE Michael Moore. He bends and slants and biases the truth to present his argument. He makes propaganda, not documentaries. I agree with the majority of his stances, but I’m not 100% behind his methods. So I don’t defend him here out of any fan-based admiration. I defend him because, holy hell, his weight has nothing to do with things. Argh!
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Have you seen Malcolm Gladwell’s criticism of “Sicko”? A description is on my “Arts of Innovation” blog. Also there: my critique of Gladwell’s flawed argument.
http://artsofinnovation.wordpress.com
Supposedly Sicko is particularly high-integrity for Moore. He didn’t have to do a lot of spinning to make this one look bad, you know? I’ve never watched a movie of his, because I want to get worked up about real things and not propaganda, but I’ll see this one when I can get the stomach (ha) for it.
I wish he’d do one on the Obesity Panic, though. Especially now that he’s been both lauded AND discredited with caveats about his fat ass.
I like Michael Moore’s propaganda. I think he’s a cutie. Not much more to say on this.
My day job is in the insurance industry, so I don’t have to go to the movies to see the disgusting underbelly of what alleges to be the American healthcare system. I see multi-million dollar examples of exactly what a freaking joke it is every single day, from the inside out, and if I didn’t have my own experiences (shockingly unrelated to being fat!) to discourage my confidence in Western medicine in general…my day job would give me plenty.
I’m with you on Michael Moore, though – while I often agree with his positions, I think dehumanization and demonization aren’t always the best way to address things constructively. I find it slightly ironic that he’s being dehumanized and demonized himself in this case…
Maybe in this case, Moore’s work is so well done, the only argument Huckabee could resort to was calling him fat?
I cannot stand Mike Huckabee. His refusal to believe in evolution is actually more offensive to me than his fatphobia, but I digress…this is my least favorite quote:
“I know how much more my health care cost when I didn’t take care of myself…”
I think I might have to start wearing a flashing neon sandwich board that says, “THE PLURAL OF ‘ANECDOTE’ IS NOT ‘DATA’.”
Wow…Huckabee ought to be ashamed of himself…
I’ve lost nearly 100 pounds, but my medical costs haven’t changed a bit (even though my cholesterol, and such have improve now that I’m at an ‘acceptable’ weight).
I had to lose weight due to help my medical condition, pcos, not because I thought it would make me look better.
Hukabee makes the mistake that many stupid people make: judging a book by it’s cover.
A person’s size is NO reflection of their fitness.
More than half the people in this country have weight issues. So Huckabee’s essentially saying that health care in America costs so much because of Americans.
I agree with this basic thought. Whether we agree/disagree or like/dislike someone, it should be based on their principles and methods NOT how they look, what they eat, what they wear, what color their skin, how thin/fat they are, etc., etc., etc.
Meghan O’Hara is not in a position to make an unbiased statement. Nothing is more valuable to someone like her than press coverage and controversy. Huckabee did her a huge favor.
I don’t think O’Hara has to be unbiased to have had a really great response to Huckabee’s utterly stupid statements.
Making a statement aimed at promoting a financial interest is a “really great response”?? Huckabee and O’Hara both have agendas that have nothing to do with weight or health.
Interesting that O’Hara did NOT refer to how Michael Moore is actually making some personal changes in his lifestyle and admitting he needs to do so. The things he says in this interview are not getting much press. He’s essentially admitting he agrees with people who have been critical of him.
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/features_julieshealthclub/2007/06/michael-moores-.html
I remember this same issue came up when Leslie Bennetts came out with The Feminine Mistake. So many of the excessive and personalized negative responses to her book were due to her size. Weight-based attacks frustrate me not only because they’re so unfair and irrelevant, but because they allow critics to delegitimize the issues that Moore and Bennetts are trying to get people to focus on. I don’t know if anything can be done about this though – appealing to people’s prejudices is the easiest thing to do. Makes me want to tear my hair out.
Whoa, whoa, wait a minute now.
If a conservative preacher does something that the left feels is hypocritical, they jump all over the guy. They say the message is not true because the messenger is not walking the walk, ergo – “whatever he says is invalid”
On the other hand, If Gore wants to use more energy on his houses and jets than an average neighborhood does in a year, and if he and his buddies generate more trash & pollution in one day than an entire city does in a year (Liver Earth) — well, the left says “that’s okay”. All those same people on the left that are fast to criticize the conservative preacher, are fast to defend Gore and say “you shouldn’t bother the messenger in this case, for it is his message that is so important.”
Bull puckey. A hypocrite is a hypocrite, and until the left comes clean, than everyone I know will continue to view these people for the clowns that they are.
If the world is coming to an end, and ‘every little bit is supposed to help’, than the major of amount of damage that Gore and Kennedy are doing should be stopped — NOW.
Same goes for Moore. I don’t want some fat leftist socialist preaching anything to me about health. Especially a flat out liar like Moore. According the the 2000 WHO report that he quotes from, the U.S. is number one in patient satisfaction. France doesn’t even make it in to the top 10. If France is so stellar, why is it that its’ patients aren’t anywhere close to as satisfied as those in the U.S.?!!!!
And 50 percent of the health programs you see on T.V. now days, are about the major, major epidemic of overweight problems here in the U.S. But no one dare bring this up to Lord Master Moore. This clown ain’t my God. And if he is going to preach to me, then he better be able to take some preachin himself. He is fat. Really fat.
Someone needs to tell him to stick a sock in it. That is, in his mouth —– before grabbing for another bag of pork rinds with cheese whiz on top.
Wow, TR, you must be honored, Rush Limbaugh has discovered your blog. Or is it Glenn Beck?