Just a point that most do not know - Michael has been a financial donor to OCF. What you have read so far is accurate, and I would offer this comment on his good cheer and apparent strengths in the Letterman interview.... he is a professional actor. We all know what he is going to be going through, the toll it will take on every aspect of him and his family. But he is certainly already feeling the effects of what is very aggressive treatments.

I turned down ET and the Insider to do TV interviews yesterday and today, but I did do off the record interviews for backgrounder on the disease with the 3 major networks today. I am very close to this situation and feel it is not appropriate for me to comment in public on these shows, speculating on what he has to deal with and the crazy questions some reporters ask, like what do you think his chances are. The media can be such whores, to state it plainly.

There is nothing worse that what our news has turned into - a bunch of has been retired generals, turned into talking heads, second guessing what the commanders on the ground are doing in Afghanistan is a typical example. They don't know the situation, the intel, and are not privy to the big picture, yet there they are on TV telling America how it is, and what should be done. Puke.

Clearly with a diagnosis and a trip right into treatment that is only 3 weeks old, the man and the family are still in shock. That they decided to remain silent for awhile should be no surprise. That hasn't stopped a bunch of doctors starting with Haddad, who commented to People magazine, from speculating on a patient that they know nothing about, when they were not even sure at the time what kind of throat cancer he had, (could have been thyroid, laryngeal, or oropharyngeal all completely different animals right?) to grab a couple of headlines for themselves.

It is inevitable that when a famous person gets our disease, we will get some much needed awareness for oral cancer, a disease that most people have never heard of. But since I am rather close to this situation, I will not be commenting on the Douglas situation here after this post. I know you all wish our fellow traveler on this path well in his battle.


Brian, stage 4 oral cancer survivor. OCF Founder and Director. The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.