What's rarer than Al Gore flying commercial? An honest media discussion about Cuba's devastating problems, especially the barely functional medical system.
In the week since the October 10 “Hannity & Colmes” (video Pt. 1 & Pt. 2), other than some conservative blogs, the media ignored the disturbing images that revealed the truth about Cuba's much-vaunted health care system.
The hosts interviewed Cuban expat George Utset and showed pictures from his website The Real Cuba as well as the exclusive footage that he obtained from Cuban physician Darsi Ferrer Ramirez.
The images showed dilapidated and crumbling hospitals with patients covered in flies, broken windows, laundry hanging from open windows, filthy bathrooms with holes in the floor and insect-infested rooms (view footage here). Since this disgrace is hidden behind the Castro Curtain, the media don't seem to care.
According to Babalu Blog, the footage was originally intended for a “20/20” segment about the reality of Cuban health care. However, after pressure from the Cuban government, it morphed into a brief interview where host John Stossel confronted Michael Moore about many of the inaccuracies in “Sicko.” To its credit, “20/20” adroitly used Utset's footage to dismantle “Sicko's” claims.
This should have been picked up by other media, but as usual, they ignored a negative story about Cuba or Castro. The same news rooms that frothed over Walter Reed's substandard outpatient housing ignored the kind of appalling, unsanitary conditions that journalists would get into fistfights to report if found in an American-run hospital.
Is the very real threat of Cuba ejecting individual journalists or entire news agencies enough to persuade the media to skip reporting unpleasant facts about that country? Does the media desire to broadcast Fidel Castro's eventual funeral give the government leverage? Or is it more simple, such as compatible ideology or group-think?
The show deserves praise for running the footage, but Utset spent most of his time skillfully redirecting questions about socialized medicine toward the failings of Cuba's primitive health system. That should have been the real story and deserves a segment of its own.
A handful of questions could strip away the fantasies about Cuba and uncover many of the biases in the US' health care discussion. Exposing the habit of overlooking Cuba's problems with socialized medicine reveals biased media which use those same dishonest tactics when reporting America's debate over universal health care.
*photo of Cuban hospital room from The Real Cuba
Lynn is a contributor to NewsBusters and can be reached with tips or complaints at tvisgoodforyou2 AT yahoo DOT com
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I don't think the MSM has
October 19, 2007 - 18:44 ET by Chris NormanI don't think the MSM has ever picked up a story uncovered by FoxNews, let alone Hannity & Colmes, have they?
Ah, the "workers'
October 19, 2007 - 19:01 ET by motherbeltAh, the "workers' paradise." Look at that, they even have flowers on the floor!! Those are flowers, right?
<sarc off> (Not taking any chances; I've been caught too many times!)
Damn! That Castro don't
October 19, 2007 - 21:06 ET by jdhawkDamn! That Castro don't look so good . . .
"And, Mr. Moore, this will
October 19, 2007 - 21:10 ET by drillanwr"And, Mr. Moore, this will be your room when you come to Cuba for your quad-bi-pass ... Oh, meet Julio ... You'll be bunking with him .... No, Mr. Moore. I mean actually bunking with him ... Yes, Mr. Moore, the same bed ... Clean sheets? ... Well, Mr. Moore, we try to watch our carbon footprint here ... Huh? Whose footprints are those on the floor? ... Julio's wife ... She sometimes stays the night with him ... Conjugal visits ... Oh, not to worry, Mr. Moore ... There is plenty of room for the three of you ... Well, looking at your robust figure, Mr. Moore, maybe sleeping on the floor those nights might be more comfortable for you ..."
Excellent
October 19, 2007 - 21:35 ET by celatorVery good..says it all. Hopeful that spineless slug will HAVE to go to Cuba for medical care.
Take a close look...
October 19, 2007 - 21:42 ET by c5thenThis is Hillary's plan for all of the poor folks who can't afford to pay the premium prices for the good care like the elite and powerful in Cuba do. This is her plan to "fix" healthcare in this country. Pay close attention.
The day that "politician" became a career choice is the day we started losing the Republic. Let's get it back! Fred08.com
Start stocking up on
October 20, 2007 - 00:23 ET by candanceStart stocking up on medicine if Hillary wins next year. She will turn America into that, and the Left will be happy.
PS Now that HillaryCare is on its way, the MSM isn't so quick to point out those bad conditions at the VA Hospital..........
card holding member of the vast right-wing conspiracy
Our hospitals
October 20, 2007 - 12:07 ET by drillanwrA couple years under HillaryCare and the VA Hospital will look like Cleveland Clinic (as IS) ...
Only an idiot would argue
October 20, 2007 - 00:20 ET by jdhawkOnly an idiot would argue that there is good health care in Cuba.
Moving on to what is shaping up to be one of the most important topics in this presidential debate is our own health care system. Here is good place to start: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf3MtjMBWx4&mode=related&search=
The above is a link to the first part of six parts of a John Stossel 20/20 show entitled, "20/20 Sick in America: Whose Body is it Anyway?" I recommend that you watch all six parts. It will take you about 30 minutes.
The next is a link to a book call, "The Cure," by Don Gratzer, a physician. You can find it here: http://www.amazon.com/Cure-Capitalism-Save-American-Health/dp/1594031533/ref=pd_bbs_2/103-8833860-9701425?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192852427&sr=1-2 .
Here is an editorial by
October 20, 2007 - 00:24 ET by jdhawkHere is an editorial by David Gratzer, the author of "The Cure," that I mentioned in post above this one.
In Canada, dogs can get a hip replacement in under a week. Humans can wait two to three years.
By DAVID GRATZER
Wall Street Journal Online, June 28, 2007; Page A13
'I haven't seen 'Sicko,'" says Avril Allen about the new Michael Moore documentary, which advocates socialized medicine for the United States. The film, which has been widely viewed on the Internet, and which will officially open in the U.S. and Canada on Friday, has been getting rave reviews. But Ms. Allen, a lawyer, has no plans to watch it. She's just too busy preparing to file suit against Ontario's provincial government about its health-care system next month.
Her client, Lindsay McCreith, would have had to wait for four months just to get an MRI, and then months more to see a neurologist for his malignant brain tumor. Instead, frustrated and ill, the retired auto-body shop owner traveled to Buffalo, N.Y., for a lifesaving surgery. Now he's suing for the right to opt out of Canada's government-run health care, which he considers dangerous.
Ms. Allen figures the lawsuit has a fighting chance: In 2005, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that "access to wait lists is not access to health care," striking down key Quebec laws that prohibited private medicine and private health insurance.
...
Other European countries follow this same path. In Sweden, after the latest privatizations, the government will contract out some 80% of Stockholm's primary care and 40% of total health services, including Stockholm's largest hospital. Beginning before the election of the new conservative chancellor, Germany enhanced insurance competition and turned state enterprises over to the private sector (including the majority of public hospitals). Even in Slovakia, a former Marxist country, privatizations are actively debated.
Under the weight of demographic shifts and strained by the limits of command-and-control economics, government-run health systems have turned out to be less than utopian. The stories are the same: dirty hospitals, poor standards and difficulty accessing modern drugs and tests.
Admittedly, the recent market reforms are gradual and controversial. But facts are facts, the reforms are real, and they represent a major trend in health care. What does Mr. Moore's documentary say about that? Nothing.
Dr. Gratzer, a practicing physician licensed in Canada and the U.S. and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, is the author of "The Cure: How Capitalism Can Save American Health Care" (Encounter, 2006).
We simply can let a socialist like Hillary Clinton cause even more of our health care system to be taken over by our government. If you want socialized medicine, she is your candidate. I think she is wrong and must not be elected to the office of the presidency in '08 for this reason alone.
Vote Republican in '08
Good grief. We are a day
October 20, 2007 - 07:38 ET by motherbeltGood grief. We are a day late and a dollar short. At a time when other socialist countries are finding out socialized health care doesn't work, and are privatizing, we are talking about socializing it.
I watched the video...I love the guy that says "you can't ask for profit when people are sick." And he objects to doctors driving a Lexus. So who will decide how much doctors should earn, sir? You?
And the lady at the end "who will decide whether you live or die....the government? an insurance company? or you?
Well, If HRC gets her way, it will be the government. Don't let her fool you...she will start out "using" the private sector. But private insurers will soon be bankrupted by her plan, which will make it necessary for the government to take over. And that's the plan, from the get-go. It started with "allowing" people to sue their HMO's. When they go out of business,due to lawsuits, anyone who thinks you will be allowed to sue the government-run health system for malpractice has grapes for brains.
Have you seen the teeth of people in England, on their glorious national dental plan? And now they have people pulling their own teeth.
Wake up people!! Yes, we have problems in the system. But allowing the government to take it over is NOT the answer! Peopl think when the government takes it over, no one will ever be told "No."
Wake up!!
Media love communism.
October 20, 2007 - 06:39 ET by Blogger Guy00001The American mainstream media favor communism and want this country to be communist. That's why they favor communist dictators like Castro and cover up for him. Did the media ever report on the locking up of AIDS patients in Cuba? How they are removed from society and "quarantined"?
What? You didn't know? You mean the American media lied?
}}---> Media Agenda
October 20, 2007 - 07:44 ET by Cool ArrowThe MSM and their supporting cast are all Union members bent on imposing the same values on Americans as Demoncrafts foresee.
Small wonder they spoon in public.
~LYDSEXICS UNTIE!~