{"id":5501,"date":"2005-10-11T11:19:51","date_gmt":"2005-10-11T15:19:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=5501"},"modified":"2005-10-11T11:19:51","modified_gmt":"2005-10-11T15:19:51","slug":"michael-moores-new-target","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/michael-moores-new-target\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Moore’s new target"},"content":{"rendered":"

Love him or hate him, filmmaker Michael Moore seems to have a knack for making conservatives nervous, angry, and usually both. Moore hasn’t been in the spotlight very much of late, but as it turns out, it’s because he’s found a new target and is already working on his next project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Any information about a new Michael Moore film inevitably gets the juices flowing and tongues wagging. This time around, months before he was to begin shooting his new film — about Americas’ ailing health care industry and provisionally entitled “Sicko” — a gaggle of pharmaceutical companies launched a pre-emptive strike against him and the film. <\/p>\n

At least six of America’s largest pharmaceutical firms sent memos to their workers warning them to be on the lookout for “a scruffy guy in a baseball cap” who asks too many questions, the Guardian reported. <\/p>\n

“We ran a story in our online newspaper saying Moore is embarking on a documentary — and if you see a scruffy guy in a baseball cap, you’ll know who it is” Stephen Lederer, a spokesman for Pfizer Global Research and Development, told the Los Angeles Times. <\/p>\n

“Moore’s past work has been marked by negativity, so we can only assume it won’t be a fair and balanced portrayal,” said Rachel Bloom, executive director of corporate communications the Delaware-based firm, AstraZeneca. “His movies resemble docudramas more than documentaries.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If recent history is any guide, Pfizer and AstraZeneca probably have reason to be concerned. If Moore is going to do a film lambasting corporate health care interests, it’s a safe bet Big Pharm isn’t going to be cast in the role of “hero.” But writing memos warning employees to be on the lookout for “a scruffy guy in a baseball cap” is probably unwise — the memo will inevitably end up in the movie.<\/p>\n

Besides, acting terrified only makes matters worse for the industry.<\/p>\n

[A]t a press conference during the film festival Moore was asked about the health care industry’s concern about his upcoming film. Bemused as he often is by his attackers, Moore pointed out that, strangely enough, the HMOs already seemed to be “totally discombobulated” even though he hadn’t yet shot a single frame.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Love him or hate him, filmmaker Michael Moore seems to have a knack for making conservatives nervous, angry, and usually both. Moore hasn’t been in the spotlight very much of late, but as it turns out, it’s because he’s found a new target and is already working on his next project. Any information about a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5501\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}