Earlier this week Michael Moore commenced a battle royale with Wolf Blitzer, host of CNN's "The Situation Room," during a live interview. It was supposed to be a segment to talk about the issues raised by Moore's movie Sicko, but CNN decided to precede the interview with a four minute piece by their medical expert, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, about inaccuracies in Sicko and how Moore fudged some facts. Though he stayed seated, Michael Moore did not take the charge sitting down.

Gupta said the movie was misleading because he thinks Moore is making the US health care system seem worse, in terms of global stature, than it really is. He also says that, even though the US rates #37 by the World Health Organization, the US is #1 in terms of shorter wait times and satisfaction (for those who actually make it into see the doctor), adding to the common criticism that the health care systems in other countries aren't as good as Moore says they are. It was almost a patriotic stance, with Gupta trying to raise the status of the US by tearing down our opponents. Then, at the end of his report, Gupta gives faint praise to the movie by saying, "Everyone agrees that our system could be better."

Moore was having none of it, pushing Gupta to eventually admit that he fudged and misquoted Moore's stance in his piece, but not before reminding Blitzer of a similar stance CNN took criticizing Fahrenheit 9/11 the last time he was interviewed by him. With the floodgates open and the satellite beaming all across the country, Moore then blamed the media for allowing us to get into the war in Iraq and asked Blitzer to apologize for all news organizations everywhere. It was enough to make you happy for the unpredictability of live television, and thanks to YouTube you can watch it whenever you like.

Because so much of the interview was arguments about everything but the movie, Blitzer asked Moore if he would stick around and tape another segment, which they would broadcast uncut. In part two, they actually talk about the movie. Moore's most revealing answer came after Blitzer asked him to respond to the criticism that he is showing the best of the foreign systems to highlight the worst of ours. Moore said he did want to focus on what the other systems are doing right, following that with, "Are there problems with their systems? Absolutely. They are run by human beings. But we know what those are. We've heard a lot about them. "

This is the part of the movie that is causing critics and bloggers and news stations to want to fact-check the movie. Everybody agrees our system sucks, but those of us who are just learning about the other systems don't know the problems with other systems, other than Canada can have some long wait times for non-emergency services.

Thanks to a fellow film critic, I was given a link to a debate about health care from the year 2000. It's a more civilized version of the argument between Moore and Gupta, where the Canadian system of medical care for all is contrasted against the speed and quality (and cost) of the American system. It's really interesting.

Even though Moore is not good at proposing solutions, unlike Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth, he is good at highlighting the problems, especially when it comes to people who have insurance and think they're covered. Hopefully, Moore will succeed in getting politicians to take this serious topic seriously.

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Andy Spletzer would love for the insurance companies to have less influence on hospital policies.