From columnist Thomas Walkom in today's Toronto Star:
http://www.thestar.com/...
Among the glitterati, Michael Moore used to be a hero. Now he is a bum. When Roger and Me, his film on General Motors head Roger Smith and the deindustrialization of America, came out in 1989, he was lauded by reviewers as a breath of fresh air, a 21st-century gonzo journalist. When it was later revealed that the dramatic core of that film, Smith's refusal to be interviewed by Moore, was untrue, the filmmaker was denounced as dishonest.
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The critics should relax. It's true that Sicko may not make it in a peer-reviewed academic journal. Caustic and blatantly opinionated, it makes no pretense at even-handedness. It does not delve into what is good about the American health system, of which there is plenty. Its description of universal health care systems, such as Canada's, is cursory. It is not comprehensive. It is, rather, a film designed to agitate its audience and make a political point, what in the old days – before propaganda got a bad name – might have been called agitprop.
And it is also fundamentally accurate.