Facts, Facts, Facts! How to prove the "truth"

The current controversy over CNN's factcheck and Michael Moore's Sicko, while gratifying, does little in the way of addressing the horrendous misrepresentation of the Cuban Health Care System in the movie. A member of the Moore entourage has been quoted as saying that she asked the government for the same facilities as ordinary Cubans. Fat chance!

Yesterday, I finished reading The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson. I've omitted the subtitle because it is very long. Suffice it to say that the book was about the Cholera outbreaks in 19th century London, including the infamous Broad Street pump. When these took place, the establishment had not idea how the disease spread. Well, actually, they thought they knew. It was spread by a miasma of bad smells. They approached the issue from this perspective, using facts to bolster their position. They were real statistics; they were not however the truth. Unfortunately, the one man who, correctly, came to the conclusion that it was a waterborne illness, had no direct way to prove it. He had no way of identifying the bacterium which causes Cholera. He had to prove it indirectly. The book centers on his battle to do just this and on the effect it had on sciences, cities, etc... It is not a scintillating read unless you enjoy nonfiction, epidemic books, etc... I thought it was interesting enough to be worth the time.

The parallel is here. Since the Castro regime prevents access to its facilities for ordinary Cubans and intimidates its subjects so that they fear uttering anything but the party line, how do we who know more of the reality prove what conditions are? We don't have statistics about the availability of medications, diagnostic tests, modern equipments, sanitary conditions. We are relegated to anecdotal evidence, the occasional graphic image smuggled out. What we need is a way to parlay what we know into what can be substantiated. A tough nut. Oh, and forget the pictures unless we can provide a context. As far as the American public knows, the facilities were always that bad.
Isn't is something, sometimes facts get in the way of the truth.