Excerpt: "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.'"

Portrait, Michael Moore, 04/03/09. (photo: Ann-Christine Poujoulat/Getty)

They Said They Would Push Me "Off a Cliff"

By Michael Moore, Open Mike Blog

17 November 10

�

esterday, 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 [former executive, CIGNA]: ... 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 [attack] campaign to succeed. At one point during a strategy meeting, one of the people from [the insurance companies' public relations firm] 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 [as a whistleblower], 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).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpKoN40K7mA

�

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

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 here on MichaelMoore.com.

Comments

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+51 # tswhiskers 2016-02-29 15:16

Your actions are all too understandable; living in the Bible Belt can be difficult for many reasons. I only hope that you will not leave the U.S. We need the jobs and services that you and your company provide. Surely up North or out West, say Oregon or Colorado, you will find more open-minded people with whom to start a business. Thank you for speaking up honestly about leaving GA and maybe the South entirely.

+5 # NAVYVET 2016-03-01 04:37

Philadelphia, PA welcomes you! Where universities provide ideas & employees, the cost of living, though risen, is still lower than in other big cities. Most of all, it's a city to respect for its visionary history, open-minded activism, and honest, loving ecumenical teamwork that includes all religions--or, if you prefer, none. Of course there are differences of opinion and a hostile state legislature. Much is needed to clean up our rusted infrastructure, an old Pay-to-Play political machine, the city police with their own white supremacist hate crimes and public schools which are a shambles of neglect & abandonment. But dozens of community groups recognize these problems and work for improvement! It's a city where every neighborhood has a lively Bernie grassroots group, plus political coordinating groups. We have a new liberal mayor. Social justice Quakerism makes its home here in the Friends Center, and Reconstructioni st Judaism, now a strong voice, was born in Philadelphia, befriending open-minded Islamic masjids. My own Unitarian Universalist parish is at the heart of justice activism, but voices for equity & tolerance now can be found in many theologically conservative churches & colleges. I've lived in 15 states, about 1/3rd in the Bible Belt, but also Hawaii (a terrific state but too expensive for me). Even with faults and problems, Phila PA is the best home for energetic activists! I've been here 20 years, 3 times longer than anywhere else, & don't want to leave.

+4 # economagic 2016-03-01 07:10

"Oregon or Colorado" -- choose the locale in either state only after careful research. Both have significant pockets of deep anti-everything -ism, especially around the Air Force Academy in Fort Collins!

0 # Nominae 2016-03-01 20:02

Quoting economagic:

"Oregon or Colorado" -- choose the locale in either state only after careful research. Both have significant pockets of deep anti-everything-ism, especially around the Air Force Academy in Fort Collins!

You advice is germane, even as your geography, (and that of your 5 "fans" on the green thumb bar), absolutely sucks.

Fort Collins is a highly progressive town, and the home of Colorado State University. Ft. Collins is 60 miles *NORTH* of Denver.

As one who claims to be a former teacher, it is hard to believe that this fact just plumb evaded you. After all, anyone can make a mistake, but isn't that what the internet is *for*? Aren't teachers fond of attention to actual facts ?

The freakin' *ACTUAL* Air Force Academy is located 71 miles SOUTH of Denver in the city of Colorado Springs. It is not only heavily populated by military, but it is an absolute MECCA for Evangelical Christians, who hold INCREDIBLE power in the community, and who have QUITE successfully invaded the USAF Academy, even when doing so is supposed to be against military regs.

So, yeah .... you can comfortably recommend Fort Collins, so that your correspondent DOESN'T end up in Colorado Spring !!

Talk about "out of the frying pan, into the fire" ! ;-D

Close, tho - the two cities ARE in the same State, but they are roughly *130* miles apart.

+39 # Ken Halt 2016-02-29 22:10

The Bill of Rights was created to protect minorities from the tyranny of the majority. Unfortunately the balance rests with the SCOTUS, and because of the quality of jurists appointed by the ascendance of conservatives since RR, civil rights have been eroded and corporate rights substituted in their stead. I am delighted to find the current demographic in the US much more tolerant and rainbow colored than the old white guys that have called the shots for way too long. Never thought that in my lifetime (I'm an old white guy) there would be such a strong and successful movement for feminist and LGBT rights. We are all brothers and sisters under the skin, there is room for all of us here, all preferences should be respected.

+24 # Farafalla 2016-02-29 23:49

OMG, Georgia. Dixie is Dixie. We should have finished the Civil War long ago and we wouldn't be coddling these "state's rights" racists and their pals, the religious fanatics. Deeply held? The only thing they hold deep is an abiding animus toward most of their countrymen.

I'm for a Supreme Court that defines citizenship as related to the whole country and not every little fuctup red state that wants to secede. Either our constitutional rights are protected or not. Hiding behind a misconstruction of the First Amendment does little to hide their hatred toward equality and justice.

-8 # ThorunnPS 2016-03-01 01:27

But of course, as a result of the company relocating, any number of presumably good workers will lose their jobs unless they are willing to relocate as well. Considering that this bill is unconstitutiona l and may well be reversed fairly quickly, I believe that this decision is precipitous and that the head of the company should sit on it for a while and see how the situation develops.

+8 # Scott Griffith 2016-03-01 02:46

My guess is that your correspondent ThorunnPS wants his comment to exemplify moderation and gentlemanliness , or something along those Southern lines. Allow me to indicate that there are times when such counsel is laughably inappropriate and this is one such.

+18 # NAVYVET 2016-03-01 04:06

Everyone who lives in the South and values personal integrity needs to read this article! And please read my comment, too: In 1957, the year I graduated after I was -- oh-so-politely and Southernly -- kicked out of the U of Florida for civil rights activities, I graduated with Cum Laude honors from Miami. It was a private school & cost money, and I had to go deeper into debt to pay off a scholarship that obligated me to teach in that disgusting state, where I'd be fired about 10 minutes after I opened my big mouth. To get away, I signed up for Navy OCS in March, as soon as I turned 21. (I'll be 80 in a few days!) Having been impressed with two women activists who'd been officers in WWII, I figured the military HAD to be better than living in the #$%^*& South! And it was more liberal, or I was too young and naive to see otherwise -- until the Vietnam war forced me to make another choice and resign in 1968.

PS: My parents had moved South only because Dad's company was sending its elder engineers to Sunbelt (Southern) states, thinking they'd prefer to retire there. But they detested Florida, too, never went to church -- dismally Fundamentalist! -- and as soon as Dad retired in 1965 they put their house up for sale. Florida is always in a dreary depression so it took 4 years, but finally they were able to move back North. Best move they ever made. They enlivened their rural Iowa town with liberal ideas & actions! GET UP AND GO.

+5 # Bruce Gruber 2016-03-01 05:40

Perhaps that "god" will slowly drown or storm the many for their self-righteous judgement, presumptuous misinterpretati on of the prophetic messengers enabled to think with their own minds, and inability to grasp the simplicity of the concept of being one WITH nature.

+9 # jcdav 2016-03-01 07:02

I'm rather suprized. in the 1980's I lived in Decatur. I had really great gay neighbors & Atlanta was about as gay as SF & NY....on the flip side prejudice was an undercurrent..w e moved back North when a neighbor child called another child (who was white) "nigger"...and I can recall a volunteer a Decatur Hospital trying to deny me access to my wife @ the birth of our son because our last names were not the same...I agree with your thoughts and decision. Navy Vet has a good suggestion, look @ PA if not Phl then the main line or Chester Co...we have it all.

+3 # Krackonis 2016-03-01 11:33

Come to Canada.... It's where the free people live.

+2 # Krackonis 2016-03-01 11:36

"It is my deeply held religious belief that Anikin Skywalker was the coming messiah.

We don't serve Christians and other non force users..."

"The Police of the Romans killed Jesus, we don't serve Police here"

"The Romans killed Jesus, we don't serve Italians here."

0 # Blackjack 2016-03-01 16:34

Let me assure you, SC is just as bad. If companies aren't leaving yet, they should. Unbelievably, though our Grand Dame Haley chose NOT to take federal money for Medicaid or for education, she had no problem holding both hands out for FEMA money after the October flood. . .which Obama graciously granted. And now our legislative hypocrites and the guv are gushing about all that "extra money."

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