[NYTr] FAIR: CBS's SiCKO Spin (and Response to FAIR)
 
Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2007 13:12:39 -0400

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
[FAIR's original alert follows Greenfield's response - NYTransfer]

FAIR - Jun 26, 2007
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3125

Activism Update

Jeff Greenfield Responds to FAIR

CBS reporter misses the point on healthcare

CBS senior political correspondent Jeff Greenfield promptly responded
to FAIR's June 25 Action Alert critiquing his report on Michael Moore's
film Sicko and public opinion on single-payer healthcare. But his
argument--which appears in full below--avoids the core issues raised in
FAIR's alert.

Greenfield's defense tries to make a distinction between Moore's
position on healthcare and a single-payer system similar to the one
outlined in HR 676, a bill supported by dozens of members of Congress.
Greenfield writes: "FAIR's critique is not. The organization is
comparing apples and oranges; actually, apples and bowling balls is
more like it." Greenfield argues that what Moore is advocating is not a
single-payer system, but a "government-run system in which the doctors
work for the government, as they do in Britain, Canada and elsewhere."
Thus, Greenfield's contention that "no one has come close" to Moore's
position means that HR 676 is (as Greenfield put it) an apple, and
Moore wants a bowling ball.

For someone trying to make fine distinctions about various healthcare
systems, it is puzzling to see Greenfield lump together the programs in
Britain and Canada. The group Physicians for National Health Program
(PNHP) points out that while Britain's system is roughly equivalent to
a system where doctors work for the government, "In most European
countries, Canada, Australia and Japan, they have socialized financing,
or socialized health insurance, not socialized medicine. The government
pays for care that is delivered in the private (mostly not-for-profit)
sector."

Nonetheless, it is ironic that Greenfield's report would include
footage of a press conference where Moore spoke in favor of HR 676; if
Greenfield were correct, Moore would have been on hand to endorse
something he rejects. Yet Moore said at the press conference: "Thank
you, Dennis Kucinich, for running for president, and at each of the
debates bringing up this very important issue.... I have been
encouraging people to get behind HR 676.... I ask Americans across the
country who are asking me, 'What can we do?' This is something you can
do. Write to your member of Congress and say, 'Get behind HR 676.'"

Physicians for a National Health Program?the national physician
organization dedicated to implementing single-payer?is campaigning in
support of Moore's film. The same is true of the California Nurses
Association, who are rallying support for a single-payer bill in the
state. Moore appeared at the group's June 12 rally in support of SB
840. When he appeared on Pacifica's Democracy Now (6/18/07), host Amy
Goodman asked Moore, "So you're talking about single payer." Moore
responded: "Yes."

Clearly, Moore would be happy with a system that resembled either
Britain's or Canada's. FAIR's point was that the media have treated the
idea that government should pay for healthcare for all as far outside
the mainstream. Greenfield's report on Sicko did much the same. It's
good to see that his response implicitly acknowledges that a
single-payer system is well within the mainstream of U.S. public
opinion; we look forward to seeing that reflected in future reports on
CBS News.

Jeff Greenfield's response (6/25/07):

FAIR's critique is not. The organization is comparing apples and
oranges; actually, apples and bowling balls is more like it.

Michael Moore is very clear about what he is proposing: it is not
simply a "single payer" system. What Moore advocates is a
government-run system in which the doctors work for the government, as
they do in Britain, Canada, and elsewhere. He devotes part of "Sicko"
to an interview with a British doctor, who lives in a fine home and
drives a nice car, to make his point that state-employed doctors need
not face privation. Later in the film, he answers the charge of
"socialized medicine" by noting that we already have "socialized"
police officer, firefighters, and teachers: all of whom are public
employees.

Unless I am very much mistaken, this is very different from the "single
payer" system that Rep. Kucinich advocates; nor is it supported by the
members of congress who back a "single payer" system. (Medicare, for
example, is a government-paid system; but recipients go to the same
doctors the rest of us do).

Similarly, what polls show is that most American do indeed want major
changes, and believe it is a matter of public responsibility to provide
health care for all--that is very different from the proposition that
Americans are open to a government-run system along the lines most
other industrialized nations have.

My point is not that such a system is a good or bad idea; only that
what Moore advocates is simply not on the political radar. Moore
himself told me in an interview that there is a "pioneer mentality," an
"everyone for himself" tradition that needs to be confronted if his
goal is to be achieved. In this regard, Moore shows a much clearer
understanding of the American political climate than does FAIR.

******
FAIR Action Alert - Jun 25, 2007

CBS's 'Sicko' Spin

Americans Don't Want Single-Payer Health -- Except They Do

On the June 22 broadcast of CBS Evening News, reporter Jeff
Greenfield's critique of Michael Moore's documentary Sicko relied on a
single premise: that the U.S. public and its political leaders do not
embrace Moore's preferred solution (a single-payer system, where
medical care is provided by private doctors and hospitals but paid for
by the government). But that argument is at odds with the available
evidence.

While noting that Moore's film "features affecting stories of personal
suffering at the hands of indifferent corporations," Greenfield argued
that even though presidential candidates "have all talked a lot about
changing the health care system...no one, Democrat or Republican, has
come close to advocating the kind of government-run national health
system Michael Moore proposes." This is incorrect; Rep. Dennis Kucinich
(D.-Ohio), a presidential contender, supports the very same approach,
as do dozens of congressmembers who have co-sponsored H.R. 676, a bill
that would provide single-payer coverage in the United States.
Ironically, Kucinich appeared on the screen next to Moore as Greenfield
made this false claim.

Greenfield elaborated on this storyline, claiming that the U.S. does
not have universal health coverage because "Americans are just
different." He went on to quote Paul Ginsburg of the Center for
Studying Health System Change: "We're much less willing to have
government make decisions for people than is the case in Canada and
Europe. It's a cultural difference."

That assessment is contradicted by recent polling. In a recent CNN poll
(5/4-5/6/07), 64 percent of respondents supported the idea that
"government should provide a national health insurance program for all
Americans, even if this would require higher taxes." And a recent
CBS/New York Times poll (2/23-27/07) found 64 percent support for the
idea that the federal government should "guarantee health insurance for
all," and 60 percent supported paying higher taxes to provide such
coverage. Additionally, 50 percent believed "fundamental changes" to
the healthcare system were necessary, and another 40 percent thought
the country needed to "completely rebuild" the system.

If Greenfield meant to say that political elites are slow to act on
public opinion, he's surely correct (and this would apply to many other
political issues as well). The same is true of elite media outlets,
which have dismissed and maligned single-payer healthcare for years.
Imagine what the polls would like if there were a serious discussion of
the issue, instead of dismissals from the likes of Jeff Greenfield.

ACTION: Tell CBS Evening News to correct Jeff Greenfield's assertions
about public opinion and single-payer health coverage. You could also
point out that Dennis Kucinich?a proponent of such a system?is in fact
a presidential candidate.

CONTACT:
CBS Evening News
(212) 975-3691
evening@cbsnews.com

Also send your comments to CBS Public Eye:
publiceye@cbs.com

**********************
FAIR
(212) 633-6700
http://www.fair.org/
E-mail: fair@fair.org

       
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