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“The Greater Good” Documentary Film Pulled by Amazon

woman's mouth taped shut

On Mar. 1, 2019, U.S. Congressman Adam Schiff  of California sent an open letter to Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, expressing concern about videos and books offered and marketed by Amazon that he believes provide either “misinformation” or “misleading information” about vaccines and vaccination. He said, “I am writing out of my concern that Amazon is surfacing and recommending products and content that discourage parents from vaccinating their children, a direct threat to public health, and reversing progress made in tackling vaccine-preventable diseases.”1

Rep. Schiff’s letter to Bezos  contained the suggestion that Amazon may be at least partly responsible for parents not vaccinating their children because of the kind of books and other information that Amazon is making available for purchase or for free:

There is strong evidence to suggest that at least part of the source of this trend [in “vaccine hesitancy”] is the degree to which medically inaccurate information about vaccines surface on the websites where many Americans get their information, among them Amazon. As the largest online marketplace in the world, Amazon is in a unique position to shape consumption.1

While Rep. Schiff did not ask Bezos to remove any specific products from Amazon offerings, he did ask Bezos to “consider” what “steps you can take to address this growing problem.” Later that day several documentaries thought to be “anti-vaccine” were removed from Amazon Prime Video’s free streaming service, including “The Greater Good,” a film produced in 2011 by Leslie Manookian.1 2 3

The movie’s website summarizes the film as, “an award winning character-driven documentary that explores the cultural intersections where parenting meets modern medicine and individual rights collide with politics. The film offers parents, doctors and policy makers a safe space to speak openly, actively listen and learn from one another. Mixing verité footage, intimate interviews, 1950s-era government-produced movies and up-to-date TV news reporting, THE GREATER GOOD weaves together the stories of families whose lives have been forever changed by vaccination.”2

In its review of the movie, The Wall Street Journal wrote: A new documentary about childhood immunizations, THE GREATER GOOD could intensify debate around the potential dangers of vaccines.” The Los Angeles Times wrote: “Deftly examined… provocative… film is an effective eye opener.”2

“What’s being said is staggering, especially if you don’t know too much about the science of, and politics behind, vaccines,” wrote LA Weekly. A review by Pegasus News read: “THE GREATER GOOD is a fascinating exploration of how vaccines are produced and regulated.”2

In an article yesterday about the move by Amazon and other social media platforms like Facebook and Google to remove or restrict content in response to similar letters from Rep. Schiff, CBS News asked the question, “[W]here is the line between protecting a community and censoring it?”4

Leslie Manookian, producer of “The Greater Good,” responded,“We’re slipping ever closer to tyranny and these tech companies are the ones who are really driving the bus. We have not heard a word from Amazon, we’ve never heard a word from Facebook, never heard a word from YouTube, never heard a word from Google or any of these giant tech companies who are systematically censoring us.”4

The CBS News article noted, “Despite contacting tech companies about it, Rep. Schiff said he does not think it’s the government’s role to tell companies they can’t publish certain content.” Rep. Schiff was quoted as saying, “There is a First Amendment right to say whatever you will.”4

CBS News reporter Tony Dokoupil followed up by asking Schiff the question, “But then why try to discourage tech companies from offering this free speech?”4


References:

1 Press release. Schiff Sends Letter to Amazon CEO Regarding Anti-Vaccine Misinformation. Congressman Adam Schiff Mar. 1, 2019.
2 The Greater Good Movie. GreaterGoodMovie.org.
3 Donvan C. Amazon Removed Anti-Vax Documentaries From Prime Video. BuzzFeed News Mar. 1, 2019.
4 CBS News. Tech’s fight against anti-vaccine content prompts free speech debate. CBS This Morning Mar. 20, 2019.

5 Manookian L. Vaccination, healthcare rights, and politics explored in “The Greater Good”. Foundation for Alternative and Integrative Medicine.
6 Leslie Manookian. Foundation for Alternative and Integrative Medicine.

75 Responses

        1. I believe they removed it from Amazon Prime. It’s currently still available on Amazon, but there is an understandable concern …for how long.

  1. WHY does 1 citizen from CA have the authority and power to pull information all citizens NEED in order to make informed decisions about products that are potentially hazardous to their or their children’s health! And why are any so called “public platforms” allowing him that power???

    1. Because this country is bought and paid for. Especially California. It’s all about the mighty dollar and special interest groups.

    2. Sandra you don’t understand the way things work. When one is on the favored side you can do pretty much what you wish. If politically incorrect righteous and right minded you suffer. Those are the rules.
      So the question is “ why do the people allow for that circumstance?”

    1. Because it may lead to critical thinking and independent decision-making that doesn’t fit with the agenda.

  2. It seems to be currently on Amazon as part of Food Matters TV: The Amazon link says “Watch on Food Matters TV with Prime Video Channels”.
    Looks like it has been restored?
    Or was it removed from some more widely available status, and put there?
    Amazon also is currently listing the DVD for sale.
    It is a good movie. I’ve seen it.

  3. I like the response by CBS News. It is getting harder and harder to get true info on some other things as well.

    Check out a supplement called Aliviar for pain. You might like it. Not a drug.

  4. I don’t understand how questioning the content and possible side effects of vaccines is false information!

  5. It is a shame that our First Amendment right of freedom of speech is so blatantly and obviously being taken away from us right in front of our eyes and no one seems to care.

  6. It’s getting harder & harder to continue fighting the good fight. I feel like many people are aware/woke but they are not the people that can do anything about it. There needs to be a powerful person like Bezos who has an “enough is enough” moment and will allow truth to be placed above the $. A powerful politician who is willing to give up is $ from the pharma lobbyists and perhaps his place as a politician. More doctors who do their own research and speak out against the cdc. It’s a huge sacrifice that these powerful people will have to make. The $ that is thrown at these people to to be yes people life changing $. Finding a way to reverse legislation that made pharma untouchable so they can be held accountable would be huge as well. If pharma lost law suit after lawsuit, it would force them to stop making trash and forcing it into our loved one’s veins.

  7. I do not understand how Fox ‘news’ can spew whatever they want, but the truth cannot be said. Why i s everyone so for these 72 shots a child must have before age 18? Do all these people know someone who died from the diseases, many of them barely dangerous, whereas some of these vaccines are truly scary ?
    I agree that one can vaccinate some, let’s say at age 14 or so, a measles vaccination might be good, because catching measles when adult seems to be rather dangerous indeed.
    But 72 ?

  8. So….
    Adam Schiff should be an example and publicly take AAl of the CDC recommended vaccinations himself and show us all how safe they are.

    On the other hand, perhaps he already has…and that’s the root of his disconnect from the facts.

  9. “As the largest online marketplace in the world, Amazon is in a unique position to shape consumption.”
    Isn’t that what they used to call tuberculosis, consumption??

    1. Tuberculosis is the name of the illness that my mind gravitates toward when I hear the word “consumption”…yep, TB & “consumption” are one & the same. Thanks for the comment Steve Sanborn.

  10. “The Greater Good” is still offered on Amazon…(1:46pm PST on 3/21/2019)., and is free with a Food Matters TV 7-day trial.

  11. As a parent of a child with Autism, as well as having two (2) children that are not fully vaccinated, I can say without a doubt, Mr. Schiff is both uneducated about the dangers of vaccines and the schedule, and uneffected by the damage vaccines and the schedule has done, and is doing to our children.
    His offensive and hypocritical actions of first suggesting to Amazon what they should and should not sell or offer, and then stating that he does not think it’s the governments role to tell companies they can’t publish certain content” is alarming and dangerously close to a Socialist viewpoint.
    My son was diagnosed with Autism at 2 1/2. We stopped vaccines the minute he was diagnosed. We also stopped vaccinating my daughter at the same time. She was 9 months old.
    Funny that they are 14 and 12 now, and healthier and stronger than almost any fully vaccinated child I have ever met in my 14 years as a parent. Both children rarely, and when I say rarely, I mean almost never, get sick. Runny nose from time to time, sure, but nothing even close to the full blown Flu, in fact, I can’t even recall a time when either one had a severe cold.
    The truth of the matter is this. Vaccines seldom are effective. They are typically full of preservatives, including ones that are toxic) as a way to “maximize” profits for Big Pharma.
    Vaccines actually prevent the body from doing what it was created to do; building an immune system that fights off infections, effectively “highjacking” the bodies built in system of fighting infection and disease.
    Here’s a startling fact. In 1974, a child, aged 2 or under, would receive 10-11 vaccines. Not too bad huh? IN fact, it stayed that way until 1983. Meaning the typical child, aged 2 would receive about 10 vaccines.
    In 2013 that number had exploded to 36, and as of today, your child will receive 49 vaccines by the time they are 6.
    yet today, our children are sicker, more unhealthy and have much weaker immune systems than they did in years past.
    Today, children can receive 6 or 7 vaccines at one time.
    We are “overloading” and breaking our children’s natural ability to fight off disease and infection.
    It’s all about money. Profit for Big Pharma, unlimited wealth for Dr’s and no accountability for anyone.
    Oh, and here’s something for you. There is not one vaccines study that can honestly refute the assertion that vaccines harm children. All of the studies big pharma sites, are backed by and paid for my Big Pharma. They spend Billions to funnel money through “shell” corporations and phony organizations.There is no truly “Independent” study that has studies the effects and outcomes of our current vaccines schedule on the health and well being of our children.
    I always like to ask this question:
    There are few, if any at all, that would not say that Penicillin is a “miracle” drug.
    Would you give a blindly Penicillin shot to anyone who has an infection?
    Why not?
    Because there are people who are allergic to Penicillin and if you give that shot, you could and most likely will, kill that person.
    So we do allergy testing don’t we? In fact, that’s a standard questions when at the Dr’s office, “Are you allergic to Penicillin”?
    So why do we wrecklesly and dangerously give our children 49 vaccines, without ANY allergy testing?????
    From the time babies are born, and I mean like within 15 minutes of birth, Dr.’s give babies vaccines. Regardless of the development of the bodies immune system.
    It’s insane people.
    Please don’t listen to “Ass-clowns” like Mr. Schiff (Sorry, I don’t know what else to call him) who don’t know what they are talking about, and who are apparently “Bought and Paid” for by Big Pharma.
    It’s America people. The Supreme Court just ruled that giving someone the middle finger was Constitutionally protected under the 1st Amendment of free Speech. So Amazon, and every other company, please don’t cave to the government “lackies” like Mr. Schiff.
    Allow us, the American people, to see, hear and take part in ALL aspects of the conversation, and let us, the American people, decide what’s best for us, and our families.
    Thank you

    1. You can’t give an aspirin to everyone without some of them getting various negative reaction to it . Am I supposed to believe that a vaccine is not going to create some very negative reactions to zero people??? Is this really what we should give up our constitutional rights for?

    2. Shawn Low……..does it help to know that a close family member (son, daughter, brother, sister,,,,can’t remember which)of ADAM SCHIFF is married to a close family member (son, daughter, brother, sister can’t remember which) of GEORGE SOROS ? So I don’t think it has a thing to do with Schiff’s concern about American babies being vaccinated or not, but rather being compliant to his relative or the globalist agenda.

  12. Hope this website has everything archived offline and is searching for alternative hosts if they are censored.

  13. Mr. Schiff is acting like the totalitarian Leftist he is. The implied threat of government action if “anti-vaccine” information is not removed from the web is loud and clear. If anyone wants to know what Mr. Schiff’s motivation likely is, I would suggest checking to see just how much money he takes each year from Big Pharma, both overtly and covertly.

  14. I also just ordered this from Amazon….we shall see.

    Injecting Aluminum
    by Dr. Romain Gherardi
    $11.99

  15. It is up to the responsible reader to verify information whether it’s an a documentary or an article they have read. They need to consult with her pediatrician and make an informed knowledgeable decision about this. Amazon can sell what they choose to sell, just like it is not the responsibility of say, a 7-Eleven store being held responsible for someone to purchase cigarettes and then complain they have cancer! What is the cancer victims responsibility what he puts in his lungs!

  16. I am disappointed that Amazon has censored certain products/books/videos that many people want access to. “Choice” is a word we hear often these days, but Amazon has made the choice for the people already!

    If Amazon is going to start censoring its books and videos, then Amazon needs to remove ALL objectionable material from its website.

  17. Sent to Adam Schiff 3/21/19

    RE: Vaccine Misinformation

    Mr. Schiff:

    Most of the time, I agree with you and appreciate your diligence with protecting our fragile democracy. However, I disagree with your suggestion to remove vaccine “misinformation” by Amazon. I am not an “anti-vaxxer” and think children should receive the very basic shots if they are healthy, but requiring mandatory vaccines is a dangerous concept. Children do not need 35 or 40 shots, and parents should be allowed some discretion.

    About 19 years ago, I was nearly killed by a tetanus shot and had a severe reaction called Guillian-Barre Syndrome (GBS). Most vaccine inserts list GBS as a potential reaction. The shot left me permanently disabled and I had to learn to walk again. Today, I still have physical limitations with my arms and legs and cannot walk up stairs easily. During the years, I have communicated with several hundred people in similar circumstances, many much worse off than I am. My GBS support group in Portland, Oregon, has several other members who have reacted to a shot, primarily a flu shot.

    A lot of people denounce anti-vaccine literature because they don’t want to believe it can happen, until they experience it themselves. My point is that we must not censure information and continue to support vaccine research. Just because the etiology of vaccine reactions hasn’t been proven does not mean they are not real. Each vaccine is composed of different ingredients and each person is unique in the way their body handles different additives, which I think happened to me. A clinic gave me a B12 shot that was supposed to be free of preservatives, but it contained aluminum. My hands recoiled for a month after that.

    Please consider not censoring information and let people get their own facts. Just like the Mueller Report, you want all the facts before making a decision. Robert Kennedy, Jr., is involved in reviewing scientific research programs about vaccines. You may wish to speak to him.

    Thank you and keep up the good work.

      1. Bob, thought about it but decided that it is better to flatter a bit rather than criticize him, and I do agree with him on other issues. Also, I didn’t mention NVIC because he may listen to a peer rather than to us.

  18. Exactly right, the tech giants are the bus drivers, preventing human knowledge from being known, until one of theirs experience what so many people have experienced with these vaccines and come to that realization, then and only then will probably they shall see the light!

    It is time to continue the battle against that tyrannical hate towards human kind.

  19. It’s still on Amazon Prime and the DVD is an ” Amazon Choice”. Maybe he actually pushed Bezos the other way? Hope he s stands up to this senator, Facebook’s behaviour is shameful.

  20. Well, it MAY be that it was removed in response to that person but in fact Amazon often just puts different offers up for free at the beginning of a month. Snooze you lose if you don’t watch before they pull it from free offers. I find it quite irritating that I miss out on watching for free. I fully believe in freedom of choice and have a child I am convinced has a disease as a result of too many vaccines in a short time. Now I am not a supporter of any vaccines. I think though that a whole lot of assumption went into the theme of this article.

  21. The issue with “The Greater Good” not that it’s no longer on Amazon, but that it used to be on Amazon Prime, so that those of us subscribed to that service could stream it (probably for a small fee.) But now you have to subscribe to Food Matters TV in order to see it, which many of us aren’t interested in. Not outright censorship, but a step in keeping controversial content away from audiences.

  22. no more Amazon for me –no prime and no buy anything–burning books Fahrenheit movie and what hitler did

  23. The only way to solve this issue is to sue them; however, they want you to sue them so that you will run out of money and be buried in debt. The only way that might possibly work is to contact alliance defending freedom and see if they can help you.

    1. Or work to remove Schiff from office. Maybe losing their power position will send a message to him and others taking cash from Big Pharma.

  24. Adam Schiff is the lead snake of the snake parade. It mKes perfect sense he would do this. Tech companies better watch out. If there’s anything Americans will turn on it limiting the 1st amendment. This is Supreme Court material.

  25. I think more politicians should get educated with the facts before they write letters! My cousin died from a polio vaccine and my fellow worker was permanently crippled from the polio vaccine in the military. Two of my relatives got shingles from the shingles vaccine. I’m exempt from vaccines and haven’t been sick in years. The TRUTH is out there!

  26. Lawrence Greenberg
    People need to stop making this a left-right issue. There are Congresspeople and Senators on both sides of the aisle that are on the pharma teat. If you go to Open Secrets and look up pharm contributors you will see that the Republican Party receives substantial more money from pharma than the Democratic Party. Senator Lamar Alexander, Chairman of the HELP committee, presided over the recent Vaccine Save Lives hearing has received $714,112 from the “pharmaceutical/health products” sector, which includes many vaccine manufacturers. https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/industries?cid=N00009888&cycle=CAREER
    Alexander is a Republican.

    Bottom line is Tech companies and sites such as amazon are not mandated to follow any directions of a congressperson. It is a choice that they make. Amazon, google, facebook, etc are doing what they always do-playing politics because they, tech companies, are going to want favors from congress at a future date.

    The country is already polarized in regards to vaccines. You have the wants and the don’t want. Framing the latest move by PHARMA as a left/right issue creates a divide in the Pro Choice, Medical Autonomy & Informed Consent that will only generate chaos. Something that will be harmful to the cause. The people that want to maintain medical freedoms must be a united group without cracks formed by politicizing the issues that Pharma can exploit because you know they will.
    FYI: I’m sure sometime in the near future we will find out via open secrets that Adam Schiff has received a generous “gift” from pharma or one of it’s front groups that give money to politicians to do their bidding. This is not a Red/Blue issues because the only color that Pharma sees is GREEN.

  27. What if the article Joseph Lister wrote in The Lancet had been taken out of circulation because of perceived ‘misinformation’ After all the simple act of washing one’s hands and having a wound without pus was thought to be quackery only 150 years ago. We don’t have to all agree but censorship is censorship. It is hard enough to figure out for yourself what is truthful information and that which was performed by scientists without conflict of interest or the use of shotty methodology to slant the results let alone others telling us we can’t see the information to decide for ourselves.

  28. Facebooks censorship is frightening. Amazon and Google following suIt is appalling. We have the right to this information! I have never vaccinated and I am so glad. I have a child who is manifesting some scary neurological issues he was born with; and I am convinced that if I would’ve vaccinated him he would have been wounded. It would’ve destroyed him. I did not know to the degree of his issues until he was 2-3 years old. At this point most children have had an insane amount of vaccines. There are warnings in the inserts themselves. We have a right to protect our bodies and our children’s bodies. To have sovereignty over our own territory of our being. It’s scary where they are navigating us.

  29. I just called and left a message on his Burbank Office # 818-450-2900 that my son had contracted a blood disorder from the MMR vaccine and that He had NO RIGHT to sensor information about vaccine from the American people and that I was not going to donate to him or ANY democrat because of what he did so he had better make that documentary available again. I said that he just proved that he is in the pocket of the Pharma companies so he is just as dishonest and anti Constitution as he saids Trump is and I am going to tell each and every Democrat that calls for a donation why I am not donating to them – Schiff.

  30. There have been many private researches done that prove vaccines do indeed harm children. The propaganda in this country makes other countries propaganda look weak! It’s all about greed in the good old USA. That’s why the government has “think tanks!” That is why there are “lobbyists.” Big Pharma fills the senators and representatives pockets to keep things so that the money keeps on rolling in. They don’t give a hoot about the consumer.

  31. Censorship has always existed. I am sure this isn’t the first thing that Amazon has pulled when an influential person requested it. Censorship isn’t always bad. As parents we protect our children from images of violence and other things. But, we are adults and should be able to make informed choices. It is still available on Amazon. It could be they are keeping it until they sell out. Or, this could be an awesome tactic to bring more awareness about the book and sell even more copies. Bravo, if that is the case.

  32. Thomas Jefferson wrote, “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”
    The United States is a Constitutional Federal Republic, it is not a democracy. The Framers of the Constitution placed the power “to execute the Laws of the Union” in the hands of the people, not some created agencies. Nor did they give the judiciary any authority to interpret the law.
    We are relinquishing all our rights through ignorance, ambivalence, and some distorted notion that we understand the laws of the Union as it was designed to function.
    Because we have relinquished our authority to an ever encroaching and evil government, we’ve doomed our children.

  33. What people of America don’t yet realize, is the extent that we are controlled where we are under the illusion of freedom and free speech. Go against the big money interests and you experience the very real danger of being destroyed or even killed. Each one of us needs to take a stand .. it is only the beginning. Why not boycott the companies doing this?

  34. “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” Upton Sinclair

    Where did you say Congressman Schiff gets his funding? The pharmaceutical industry you say, okay, understood.

  35. I just ordered The Greater Good off of Amazon. I hope a bunch of people order it, so that the effort to block it backfires. This is censorship.

  36. Big Pharma is making Billions off these vaccinations drugs. They are killing the American people both infants and adults. Some people are so blind they don’t want to or cannot see it. When the government takes away our First Amendment rights and our right to choice and deciding what we do with our bodies that is the day we will not longer be the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.
    If we don’t have an uprising that day is coming faster than anyone realizes.
    I grieve that day.

  37. This is getting out of hand… These companies are able to allow porn/google/youtube, suicidal post on how to kill yourself/youtube/google and just about anything you could imagine that isn’t considered good for public health or well-being… They can have ad’s for pharmaceutical drugs that end up killing many or causing greater illnesses… There are loads of books about total nonsense that could sway people one way or another on many subjects on Amazon but yet they are trying to silence people who are speaking out about FACTS of vaccine safety. Most of these movies/documentaries are made from parents or people who have seen people actually suffer due to vaccines. The masses are listening to a corporation who makes loads of money off them yet trying to silence suffering families and their stories. There’s no reason anyone would make up a lie about a vaccine injury… I have a vaccine injured child and it has brought nothing but suffering and loss to speak out about it. We don’t get paid we actual are paying loads of medical bills and other expenses for our injured children. Why would we lie, why are we being silenced? It’s our free right as human beings to be able to speak our truths…. The people trying to silence us are the ones who are also ignoring us…We can’t sue the makers of the vaccines and we are made out to be liars and crazy ani-vaxxers when we cry out for someone to hear us. To hear what vaccines did to our child… I’m not a anti-vaxxers, I’m a ex-vaxxer…. What is forgotten or overlooked by so many is that most of us did vaccinate our kids as told and we seen them either die or become injured from them…. Of course after that we stopped vaccinating…. Who in the right mind would keep doing something they see is hurting their child? All of this is getting out of hand and I really hope someone in power and who has a soul will stand up and give us back our freedoms and also make those makers of vaccines held accountable for all these injuries. Maybe then real studies can be made and cures along with better safety standards can be implemented.

  38. Notice how Congressman Schiff says to Bezoz: “Amazon is in a unique position to shape consumption” If that isn’t a marketing term, I don’t know what is. Maybe Big Pharma threatened the tech giants with pulling some of their advertising revenue if they continue to let it be known how dangerous some of these immunizations are. We should start a campaign to get the movie reinstated!

  39. I just got ‘The Greater Good’ from Amazon,so, perhaps they have reconsidered or are just selling off the remaining stock. 3-30-19

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