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<th nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT">Subject: </th>
<td>[Spam 4.10] They Said They Would Push Me "Off a Cliff" ...a
letter from Michael Moore</td>
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<th nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT">Date: </th>
<td>Wed, 17 Nov 2010 12:19:08 -0500</td>
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<th nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT">From: </th>
<td>Michael Moore <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:maillist@michaelmoore.com"><maillist@michaelmoore.com></a></td>
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<th nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT">Reply-To: </th>
<td><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:maillist@michaelmoore.com">maillist@michaelmoore.com</a></td>
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<th nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT">To: </th>
<td><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:tiedye@turbonet.com">tiedye@turbonet.com</a></td>
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<br>
<p>They Said They Would Push Me "Off a Cliff" ...a letter from Michael
Moore
</p>
<p>Wednesday, November 17th, 2010
</p>
<p>Friends,
</p>
<p>Yesterday, 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, <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-in-the-news/push-michael-moore-off-cliff">revealed</a>
that CIGNA met with the other big health insurers to hatch a plan to
"push" yours truly "off a cliff." </p>
<p>The interview contains new revelations about just how frightened the
health industry was that <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://michaelmoore.com/books-films/sicko">"Sicko"</a> 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?). </p>
<p>Take a look at this stunning section of the interview with Wendell
Potter:
</p>
<p><strong>WENDELL POTTER [former executive, CIGNA]:</strong> ...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—
</p>
<p><strong>AMY GOODMAN: </strong>Are you sure?
</p>
<p><strong>WENDELL POTTER: </strong>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.
</p>
<p><strong>AMY GOODMAN: </strong>So what were they talking about when
they said, "If this doesn't work, we're going to push him off the
cliff"?
</p>
<p><strong>WENDELL POTTER: </strong>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.
</p>
<p><strong>AMY GOODMAN: </strong>So, were you doing research on him?
</p>
<p><strong>WENDELL POTTER: </strong>Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
</p>
<p><strong>AMY GOODMAN: </strong>You were going—personally?
</p>
<p><strong>WENDELL POTTER: </strong>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.
</p>
<p><strong>AMY GOODMAN: </strong>But they were doing an investigation
into him personally?
</p>
<p><strong>WENDELL POTTER: </strong>Well, absolutely. We knew as much
about him probably as he knows about himself.
</p>
<p><strong>AMY GOODMAN: </strong>About his wife, about his kid, about—
</p>
<p><strong>WENDELL POTTER: </strong>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.
</p>
<p><strong>AMY GOODMAN: </strong>And did you use that?
</p>
<p><strong>WENDELL POTTER:</strong> You use it if necessary.
</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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 <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpKoN40K7mA">infamous encounter</a>
with Wolf Blitzer and later, an <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikes-letter/cnn-throws-in-towel-admits-to-two-errors-and-states-that-all-sicko-facts-are-true-to-their-source-or-something-like-that">apology</a>
from CNN for getting their facts wrong). </p>
<p>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.
</p>
<p>(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.) </p>
<p>Please read or watch the entire <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-in-the-news/push-michael-moore-off-cliff">interview</a>
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? </p>
<p>God Bless the Ruling Class,<br>
Michael Moore<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:mmflint@aol.com">MMFlint@aol.com</a><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.MichaelMoore.com">MichaelMoore.com</a>
</p>
<p>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 to my <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.michaelmoore.com">website</a>. <br>
<br>
<br>
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