Moore lies looking less likely.

Say, Michael. What are the prospects for your latest "documentary?"

From NewsMax.com last week:

Michael Moore is apparently so desperate to dig up dirt on drug companies and health-care providers for his next documentary, "Sicko," he's asking visitors to his Web site to help him out. But given the glaring conflict between what the filmmaker says about drug companies and how he invests in them, the title of the movie might well apply to Moore himself.
In discussing his new project, Moore has said that "being screwed by your [health-care provider] and ill-served by pharmaceutical companies is the shared American experience."

Why then, if horror stories about drug companies and HMOs are ubiquitous, is the "Fahrenheit 911" filmmaker asking for help?

Probably because it was overly obvious that his prior two "documentaries" were filled with blatant lies and distortions. Perhaps Mike is switching to a more subtle approach.

On his Web site, Moore addresses his "friends": "How would you like to be in my next movie? I know you've probably heard I'm making a documentary about the health-care industry ... . Maybe you've just been told that your father is going to have to just, well, die because he can't afford the drugs he needs to get better ... O.K., here's your chance" [to tell about it].

"Bowling for Columbine" was made to demonstrate the evil of guns by exploiting the April 1999 tragedy at Columbine High School."Fahrenheit 9/11" was used to demonize President Bush and insinuate that Iraq was some peaceful oasis prior to US action taken.

And now Moore would like you to tell your tales of woe about a friend or relative allegedly getting sub-standard health care.

Let's see. Human tragedy and suffering. Making this country look bad. Moore making millions of dollars. Do you sense a theme here? 

He also invites employees of pharmaceutical companies and others in the health-care industry who "have seen too much abuse of your fellow human beings" to contact him via e-mail for possible inclusion in "Sicko." And he vows: "I promise you that with ‘Sicko' we will do our best to give you not only a great movie, but a chance to bring down this evil empire, once and for all."

You come up with the premise "American health care is evil" and yet you put all of your hope for film content into possibly disgruntled employees of drug companies? Pathetic, Mike.

Perhaps Moore would be well served to read Peter Schweizer's blockbuster new book, "Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy."

In his chapter on Moore, Schweizer points out that "Sicko" accuses pharmaceutical companies of letting Americans die in order to boost profits.

But he also reveals that Moore – who has publicly claimed that he doesn't invest in the stock market out of moral principle – in fact has used his private foundation to invest in those very same pharmaceutical firms.

Over the past five years, Schweizer writes, Moore's holdings "have included such evil pharmaceutical and medical companies as Pfizer, Merck, Genzyme, Elan PLC, Eli Lilly, Becton Dickinson and Boston Scientific."

Moore told the Detroit News that the health-care system in the United States, "inferior to that of much poorer nations, benefits the few at the expense of the many."

Writes Schweizer: "Count Moore himself as one of those ‘few.' He may savage HMOs in his film ‘Sicko,' but he has also owned shares of Pharmacia Corporation and Tenet Healthcare. He must have liked their price-to-earnings ratios . . .

"Publicly, Michael Moore is a populist crusader who stands up to profit-minded corporations on behalf of workers, women, minorities, and the environment. Privately, he is the consummate capitalist single-mindedly focused on money."

Nice work if you can get it.

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