Say Anything Blog

You gotta love the liberal arrogance on display in this Boing Boing post about Google’s urging health care companies to counter Michael Moore’s propaganda film by buying up advertising on Google Searches for the film.

Google’s “Health Advertising Team” is trying to sell the health industry on buying ads to be shown opposite searches for “Sicko.” The idea is to counter Michael Moore’s amazing, enraging, must-see indictment of the health industry’s grip on American society by running ads over search results for Sicko.

Another approach would be to reform the practices that Moore criticises in the film—for example, refusing to pay for an insured individual’s surgery because she didn’t mention a 15-year-old yeast infection on her application; denying MRIs to patients with brain tumors; and paying medical directors bonuses for denying claims.

But why make your customers healthier—at shareholder expense—when you can just give money to Google to FUD and astroturf the issue?

Should the health care industry re-think some of the practices Moore exposes in his film (because like it or not, he does expose some pretty shady insurance company practices, though they aren’t nearly as widespread as Moore suggests)?  Sure.  But calling an attempt by the health care industry to reply to Moore’s half-truths, innuendo, exaggerations and outright lies by appealing to the public through advertising “astroturfing” is, well, pretty stupid.

It’s a battle of ideas, is it not?  And doesn’t the health care industry have a right to respond to Moore’s indictments?  And even use advertising to promote those responses, just as Moore himself has used advertising to push his film?  Cory Doctrow, the author of the post, seems to be cheesed off at the idea that anyone would question Moore’s motivations and conclusions.

Which is about par for the course, I guess, for someone who thinks t-shirts casting Moore as Che Guevera are a compliment to the rotund propagandist.

Despite the outrage from the left, Google isn’t doing anything wrong here.  Political and business interests buy up advertising on search terms targeting their opponents all the time.  That Google would encourage the health care industry to do the same is just plain good business.

I mean, Soros is running ads for one of his many advocacy groups on searches for President Bush, but somehow I don’t think Doctrow and the other leftists outraged at this would be upset at that.