Mount Dora doctor never dreamed the storm he created [The Orlando Sentinel, Fla.]

Apr. 6--MOUNT DORA -- Dr. Jack Cassell, the urologist who sparked a national debate about medical ethics and politics with a message on his office door -- "If you voted for Obama ... seek urologic care elsewhere" -- figured his small orange sign might stir passions among his patients, but he didn't anticipate a national media storm.

"It was my Peter Finch moment," Cassell said, referring to the late actor who won an Oscar for the 1976 movie Network. Finch's crazed character, TV newsman Howard Beale, implores his audience to "go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell, 'I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' "

Cassell, 56, whose appearances Monday included Fox News' Fox & Friends and a Chicago drive-time radio program, said he won't take down the sign despite a deluge of outraged calls to his office answering service.

"I've done nothing wrong but speak my mind," said Cassell, who unexpectedly burst into the national health-care debate Thursday night after the Orlando Sentinel first published news of his protest online. "I'm just doing what somebody needed to do."

Cassell, who has practiced in Lake County for 22 years, occasionally shows up at Eustis City Commission meetings but insisted he has not been politically active.

"Until now," he said.

Facebook fan page

His sudden celebrity includes a newly created Dr. Jack Cassell Fan Page on Facebook, which counted more than 1,200 members as of 6 p.m. Monday, and a fact-checking critique of his Fox appearance by Media Matters for America, which monitors, analyzes and corrects "conservative misinformation" in the media. The Internet site said Cassell falsely claimed the health-care reform law "totally cuts" hospice care.

Cassell, who said he declined invitations Monday to appear on 14 other radio stations across the U.S., also said he welcomes the opportunity to coax doctors into the debate over national health care.

"I think all the doctors in the United States need to take a stand on this because pretty soon it's going to be too late," he said. "It's important. I feel Obamacare won't let me take care of my patients the way I need to."

That Cassell was propelled into the media vortex is not surprising, considering that health-care reform has been a hot-button topic in a new era of instant communication, according to Kelly McBride, an expert in journalism ethics at The Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank in St. Petersburg.

"It's one of those stories that everybody says, 'Oh, can you believe this!' " McBride said. "Once new information is published, if it is at all sensational, it spreads like wildfire. ... Stuff like this flares up fast and furious, and it dies down just as fast unless someone fans the flames."

The story was seized by bloggers, political talkers on TV, and users of Facebook, Twitter and social media.

"This is what going 'viral' is all about," McBride said.

Right to 'advertise'

Cassell contends the spotlight has not affected his ability to see patients or meet his medical obligations. He reaffirmed that he has not refused any patients and has not asked any to state their politics.

"Don't ask, don't tell," he said of his patients' politics. "I was making a statement about Obamacare in a unique way. I really honestly don't care if they voted for Obama; I just don't want them to vote for him again."

Cassell has the right to "advertise" his services however he chooses, said Eulinda Smith, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health, when asked if the agency would investigate complaints about the sign.

After earning an undergraduate degree in microbiology at Rutgers University in New Jersey, Cassell earned his medical degree at St. George's University School of Medicine in Grenada in the West Indies, then practiced medicine for five years in Newark before accepting a urologic-oncology fellowship at the University of Florida.

Cassell is married to land-use lawyer Leslie Campione, a Republican candidate for Lake County commissioner. Both in their second marriages, they are parents to a blended family of five children.

Cassell, who authored a book called Better Living Through Urology and holds a patent for a urologic device, holds staff privileges at Florida Hospital Waterman in Eustis.

"He is an independent practitioner with his own opinions," said hospital marketing director Bonnie Zimmerman, adding, "Florida Hospital remains committed to serving everyone in the community regardless of political convictions or affiliations."

Aside from medicine, Cassell helped raise money for the Mount Dora Community Building in 2007 by recruiting standup comic Gilbert Gottfried, whose shrill voice is best known as the frustrated duck that screams "AFLAC!" in the insurance company's TV commercials.

Stephen Hudak can be reached at [email protected] or 352-742-5930.

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