From the SiCKO website"A multifaceted counteroffensive against Michael Moore's film about the health care industry" is beginning, reports Elizabeth Solomont. To counter the movie Sicko, "free market think tanks and the drug companies are already mobilizing. ... Several organizations staging responses to 'Sicko' receive funding from pharmaceutical companies, including the Manhattan Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and the Pacific Research Institute," notes Solomont, citing SourceWatch. "It definitely has to be rebutted," said the Pacific Research Institute's Sally Pipes. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America's Ken Johnson called the film a "biased, one-sided attack." Health Care America, "whose Web site says it is funded in part by pharmaceutical manufacturers," held a conference call with reporters, "to discuss what Michael Moore left out of his movie." A press release from FreedomWorks says the conservative lobbying group will also weigh in, with its "nationwide grassroots army ... handing out information at movie theaters that exposes Moore's hypocrisy, points out the problems associated with government-run health care, and promotes the FreedomWorks solution of removing existing government barriers that prevent Americans from being able to use the free market to choose the care that suits their individual needs."

A B-roll video -- an unassembled video news release -- has been distributed to Canadian newsrooms warning consumers that "disease causing germs can be found lurking" just about everywhere in the home. The video, which was distributed by the PR firm Hill & Knowlton on behalf of The Hygiene Council, includes a "suggested" script for journalists. The suggested narration reads, in part: "Lysol is the No.1 pediatrician recommended brand and can help you maintain a clean, healthy environment for the whole family." The video includes interview clips of two doctors who are members of The Hygiene Council, Professor John Oxford from St. Bartholomew's and Royal London Hospital, and Dr Donald Low, the Microbiologist-in-Chief at the Toronto Medical Laboratories, Mount Sinai Hospital. Who makes Lysol? Reckitt Benckiser, a company that produces chemical products for domestic consumers. And who funds The Hygiene Council? On its website -- but not in the B-roll information sent to newsrooms -- the council states that it is funded by "an educational grant from Reckitt Benckiser."