Monday, July 09, 2007

Fact Checking

I just watched some of Michael Moore's smack down of Wolf Blitzer, and it is good. I would like to see the whole segment, which I imagine will be up later on other websites.

In a nutshell, Moore asked Wolf if CNN is going to apologize to him for attacking Fahrenheit 9-11 when it turned out he was ultimately correct. As I pionted out previously, Moore has a much better record than the vast majority of other pundits/commentators. Yet, as this commenter from Atrios notes:
I would love to see any statement from this administration get one tenth of the fine-toothed combing that every single scene of Moore's movies get.

I would also extend this to CNN, MSNBC and certainly Fox News. The media's standards for Moore's movies border on the ridiculous. For instance, in one of the many articles that sought to fact check Moore, they point to the fact that he did not mention the following:
Believe it or not, the United States does rank highest in the patient satisfaction category. Americans do have shorter wait times than everyone but Germans when it comes to nonemergency elective surgery such as hip replacements, cataract removal or knee repair.

In regards to the last part, I think this only strengthens Moore's point about the feebleness of the U.S. health care system. If you need a boob job or liposuction, you will be hurried right along. If you need emergency surgery, well you are kind of screwed.

On the first part of the quote, this certainly helps Moore's argument about the weakness of the American system. As is revealed in an earlier segment of the article:
Like Moore, we also found that more money does not equal better care. Both the French and Canadian systems rank in the Top 10 of the world's best health-care systems, according to the World Health Organization. The United States comes in at No. 37. The rankings are based on general health of the population, access, patient satisfaction and how the care's paid for.

According to this little nugget, we can assume that the measure of patient satisfaction is most definitely skewing the overall results. I would be curious to know what our ranking would be if patient satisfaction was left out. CNN could have found that out, but I am sure they try their best to stay away from anything resembling journalism.

In CNN's defense, I should point out that Michael Moore is fat.

1 comment:

Pork Rinds said...

That statement by one of Atrios' readers - essentially, that the administration should be fact-checked a 10th as diligently as Michael Moore - really says it all.

MM admittedly rubs me the wrong way sometimes and so, I presume, does he rub people in the press the wrong way. The press love, or at least one time did, Baby Bush. That would be a lame explanation of the difference in treatment.