When someone talks about pushing you off a cliff, it's just human nature to be curious about them. Who are these people, you wonder, and why would they want to do such a thing?
That's what I was thinking when corporate whistleblower Wendell Potter revealed that, when "Sicko" was being released in 2007, the health insurance industry's PR firm, APCO Worldwide, discussed their Plan B: "Pushing Michael Moore off a cliff."
But after looking into it, it turns out it's nothing personal! APCO wants to push everyone off a cliff.
APCO was hatched in 1984 as a subsidiary of the Washington, D.C. law firm Arnold & Porter -- best known for its years of representing the giant tobacco conglomerate Philip Morris. APCO set up fake "grassroots" organizations around the country to do the bidding of Big Tobacco. All of a sudden, "normal, everyday, in-no-way-employed-by-Philip Morris Americans" were popping up everywhere. And it turned out they were outraged -- outraged! -- by exactly the things APCO's clients hated (such as, the government telling tobacco companies what to do). In particular, they were "furious" that regular people had the right to sue big corporations...you know, like Philip Morris. (For details, see the 2000 report "The CALA Files" (PDF) by my friends and colleagues Carl Deal and Joanne Doroshow.)
Right about now you may be wondering: how many Americans get pushed off a cliff by Big Tobacco every year? The answer is 443,000 Americans die every year due to smoking. That's a big cliff.
With this success under their belts, APCO created "The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition." TASSC, funded partly by Exxon, had a leading role in a planned campaign by the fossil fuel industry to create doubt about global warming. The problem for Big Oil speaking out against global warming, according to the campaign's own leaked documents, was that the public could see the "vested interest" that oil companies had in opposing environmental laws. APCO's job was to help conceal those oil company interests.
And boy, have they ever succeeded. Polls now show that, as the world gets hotter, Americans are getting less and less worried about it.
How big is this particular cliff? According to the World Health Organization, climate change contributes -- right now -- to the deaths of 150,000 people every year. By 2030 it may be double that. And after that...well, the sky is literally the limit! I don't think it's crazy to say APCO may rack up even bigger numbers here than they have with tobacco.
With this track record, you can see why, when the health insurance industry wanted to come after "Sicko," they went straight to APCO. The "worst case," as their leaked documents say, was that "Sicko evolves into a sustained populist movement." That simply could not be allowed to happen. Something obviously had to be done.
As Wendell Potter explains, APCO ran their standard playbook, setting up something called "Health Care America." Health Care America, according to Potter, "was received by mainstream reporters, including the New York Times, as a legitimate organization when it was nothing but a front group set up by APCO Worldwide. It was not anything approaching what it was reporting to be: a 'grassroots organization.' It was a sham group."
Health Care America showed up online in 2007 (the year "Sicko" was released) and disappeared quickly by early 2008. You can still find their website archived here. As you'll see, their "moderated forum" allowed normal, everyday, in-no-way-employed-by-the-insurance-industry Americans to speak out. For instance, here's something Nicole felt very strongly about:
"Moore shouldn't be allowed to call his film a 'documentary.' It should be called a political commercial. We need to fix our health care system, but we shouldn't accept a Hollywood moviemaker's political views as the starting point."
Here's what Wendell Potter revealed about the insurance industry's media strategy:
"As we would do the media training, we would always have someone refer to him as 'Hollywood entertainer' or 'Hollywood moviemaker Michael Moore.' They don't want you to think that it was a documentary that had some truth."
Thanks for your perspective, "Nicole"!
Now, how big was THAT cliff? A pretty good size -- according to a recent study, 45,000 Americans die every year because they don't have health insurance.
And here we are in 2010. A lesser PR firm might be resting on its laurels at this point, content to sit back and watch hundreds of thousands of people continue to be pushed off the various cliffs they've built. But not APCO! Right now they've taken on their biggest challenge yet: leading a giant, multi-million dollar effort to help Wall Street "earn back the trust of the American people."
We may never know the size of this particular cliff. But we can be sure it's gigantic. According to the New York Times, one of the things Wall Street's recession gave us is "the crippling of the government program that provides life-sustaining antiretroviral drugs to Americans with H.I.V. or AIDS who cannot afford them." Internationally, organizations fighting AIDS and other diseases are "hugely afraid" of cutbacks in funding.
Of course, there are the 101 ways recessions kill quietly. For instance, children's hospitals are seeing a sharp 55% rise in the abuse of babies by parents.
And that's just the previous cliff. If APCO and its Wall Street co-conspirators lull us into turning our backs on them again, we can be sure the next cliff -- the next crash -- will be much bigger.
Anyway, this is all just a way for me to say to APCO: No hard feelings! My getting mad at you would be like a chicken who's still happily pecking away getting mad at McDonald's. Compared to the millions you've already turned into McNuggets, you've actually treated me much, much BETTER! Spying on my family, planting smears and lies about me, privately badgering movie critics to give the film a poor review, scaring Americans into believing they'd be committing a near-act of treason were they to go to the theater and see my movie -- hey, ya done good, health insurance companies of America. And, most important, you stopped the nation from getting true universal health care. Good job!
There's only one problem -- I'm not one of those "liberals" you fund in Congress, the ones who fear your power.
I'm me. And that, sadly, is not good for you.
Yours in good health,
Michael Moore
P.S. It seems to me that APCO's discussion of pushing me off a cliff should legitimately be part of their Wikipedia page. And why not something about their role in Wall Street's new PR offensive? So I'm asking everyone interested to write something up that meets Wikipedia's guidelines and help bring the APCO Worldwide entry up to date. Post it somewhere online and send a tweet about it to @mmflint. I'll award a signed copy of "Sicko" by noon Sunday to the best entry...and then deputize you to post it on Wikipedia for real and make sure APCO's minions don't take it down. Just be sure afterward not to walk near any cliffs!
P.P.S. The late, great comedian Bill Hicks had some thoughts about marketing and the people who do it.
Follow Michael Moore on Twitter: www.twitter.com/MMFlint
"45,000 Americans die every year because they don't have health insurance"
That sounds like a lot, doesn't it? But when you consider that 2.4 million Americans die every year in total (and do the long division), you'll find that increases the death rate by 1.875% (not a lot).
How many American's will die because they've been forced to accept lousy gov't run health care? Pretty convenient that the world will never know the answer to that question, isn't it?
OH yes, it was the PEOPLE who "rigged" the mortgage and banking industries to first:
persuade buyers into buying houses with atrocities like "stated incomes"....
only to bet against the whole practice..
and win, paying out big bonuses and bringing an entire economy to the brink.
Go back to APCO
...you failed
(but thanks for playing).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOP2V_np2c0
Anyone up for having a social conscience and putting people before property and profit?
For a real eye-opener on what they're up to these days go to: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/232611?RS_show_page=3
I have little patience for corporate apologists.
This is not cool. It is also not necessary. It will destroy most of the higher life-forms on this planet if it continues in anything like its present form for very much longer at all. The situation has become dire enough that if you are not now part of the solution then you are now part of the problem. They aren’t going to let anyone get away with ignoring them for much longer. It is time for everyone to act.
Almost everyone on the planet has the same Enemy. They are a surprisingly small handful of people. However, they are very rich. They keep us at each other’s throats so we will ignore them. I think I could be on friendly terms with the vast majority of the people in Iran. I have heard report after report of legendary Iranian hospitality. Iranians are not my enemy. Wall Street is my enemy. Wall Street is the Tea Party’s enemy. Wall Street is America’s enemy.
We really need to stop voting for these people.
Once upon a time, money was supposed to flow into Wall Street and (in turn) fund America's capital asset needs. Wall Street has diverted the money into their own wallets.
And no one has marched.
No one.
Michael symbolically performed a ritual by (holding up the bag) and asking for the money back,
but no one followed up. No one.
We deserve to be taken advantage of. We're a hapless, hopeless society spiraling downward toward a third world status.
The people will one day realize your faithfulness to this country in trying to stop the enemies of our democracy from taking over and destroying what is left of this wonderful land. Right now, however, the majority of the people are still highly brainwashed and cannot see or understand what you have been trying to tell them because they have been immune to what they believe are "conspiracy theories".
As long as just one person believes the republicans will make things right in this country, then we will forever be lost to those ignorant believers who will "not" vote for their best interest. We must teach and awaken these people first before we can have the power and foresight to move into the future evolving normally. We don't seem to realize just how far behind we are and we have a false reality of wanting to go even further "back". That's how bad it really is now.
Until we wake up and see clearly, Michael, we are at a lost to fully understand the value of the information you have been giving us all this time. But whatever you do, please do not stop!
Plus, are those good republicans in the house still there after this election? Because we will surely need them to speak up if they are. I doubt it though, because the republicans have infiltrated the house completely with the types of people that want to bring this administration to its knees instead of working in consort with the democrats "for the people". The political republicans are too selfish and will never do anything that does not benefit their pockets. They don't seem to have the heart that is necessary to care about the people.
Thank you for your comment and for being my new "positive thinking" friend. F&F.
You may stop reading here if you like the way things are going!!!!!!!!!
The medical insurance companies have both parties in their back pocket. That means they will talk tough, pass laws but will leave enough holes in the laws where you still have to pay. Here is straight talk. The American party will cut the medical insurance costs by one half or they will set up a new insurance plan that will cut your cost by 50% or more and if the plan is not agreed with will cut the federal payments to medical practitioners. That is good news for you. Along with this is a set amount for law suits and after three lawsuits a doctor will lose his license. If injured you will keep your medical.
No, The American party will not make every one happy but it will do what is best for the United States, this program would put billions of real income into the economy. Real income is what you make at a job, it is not bail out money that has to repaid.
And, in this case, I think it IS the truth. You cannot escape the grim, statistical, verifiable reality that one 1% of the America's population now owns of the vast majority of the nation's resources. And that 1% has not shown itself to be terribly interested in the well-being of the rest of us.
I am not predicting a Revolution or anything Marxist, but this situation cannot endure forever.
explosive-cargo.blogspot.com
We need to completely replace the for profit banking system with a non-profit banking system.
If we just started over, forgave all debts, transferred all commercial deposits to a nonprofit bank that was directly owned by the citizens themselves, democratically controlled, one person, one nontransferable voting share, we could finally level the playing field and restore freedom and justice.
This change would be so monumental, that it could actually do away with representative government itself, as the citizens could *directly* represent ourselves on the internet.
The whole idea of having 450+ representatives for a nation of 300 million people, who all reside in one little building, with little private offices where they make secret deals behind closed doors, doesn't make any sense for these modern times.
If we just took over control of our whole monetary system, then would could govern ourselves and allocate our resources in a truly democratic fashion.
This would completely eliminate the Federal Reserve, and the citizen-owned nonprofit bank would have the authority to create capital as society demands.
I think this represent the true destination of the internet itself.
Please register your opinion on the question of doing this at the nonprofit website, http://define.com, where the entire site itself is dedicated to a global citizen's referendum on the banking system itself.
This would only work if it was done on a global scale. Halfhearted efforts would just collapse the economy and create disaster.
However, if the citizens of the internet reached a majority consensus that this would be a preferable system, we could actually implement a dual currency system.
We could have a gold-backed currency, and an electronic currency that was time limited. With this, we could have a basic income guarantee and true freedom. We could all have an allowance that allowed us to live comfortably in modernity, without inflation.
The goal is to have absolute freedom. Freedom to stay at home if we chose to. Freedom to just live, instead of freedom to slave our lives away just for the right to have a roof over our heads.
We'd have to completely redesign the whole ball game.
Really, how much money does a person need to just live freely, with a roof over their head, gas money, food money, clothes, and the ability to travel and move around.
My grandparents house is an interesting example.
40 years ago, their house looked exactly like it does today. Almost like a movie set. There was the living scene, with the couch, the coffee table, the two antique chairs, the grandfather clock.
There was the den, with the piano and television and desk.
There was the dining room, with the wooden table.
They bought this home, furnished it, retired, and were set for life.
Once we get the basics out of the way, we just need to eat and have food and gas money.
We don't need to be ravaging consumers constantly getting new toys and throwing things away.
We have seen many slip over it and land there right beside us.
Many recover and live, the way we have always lived.
Some never recover, think that some crime has been committed,
some 'sin by god',
that they, so perfect & entitled they,
should have fallen, too,
and become . . . Just Like Everybody Else.
That is clear evidence of a monopoly. Why does our government allow these industry wide trusts to act against the public interest? A little bit of good old fashioned trust busting would go a long way toward restoring America.