The media lies, spins, and obfuscates everything that comes into contact with your brain. The so-called health care debate is a case-in-point for the ages. –Ed.
The end of Congress’s long debate over ObamaCare could be near, asthe President pushes for a final vote this week before his Asia trip,and House Democrats want a resolution before next week’s Easter break.
Yetwhether or not liberals’ dreams are ultimately realized, they have hada huge advantage throughout the process. Over the past twelve months,journalists have continually stacked the deck in favor of a biggovernment takeover of health care.
A review of the worst spin:
On March 1, 2009, previewing Obama’s first White House meeting on health care, ABC’s Dr. Tim Johnson championed the liberal side.“We spend more than twice as much, per person, on health care in thiscountry as the average of all other industrialized countries, yet we’rethe only one that doesn’t have universal coverage. That’s a nationalshame,” Johnson announced on World News. ■ Obama’s March 5, 2009 health care conference drew rave reviews. On Nightly News,NBC’s Chuck Todd saluted how Obama had abandoned the “secrecy” ofHillary Clinton’s mid-1990s effort, and he enthused over the “KnuteRockne-like boost” an ailing Senator Ted Kennedy provided. On ABC’s World News,Tim Johnson gushed: “I was blown away by President Obama’s grasp of thesubject, how he connected the dots, how he answered the questionswithout any script.”As Obama kicked off his push for legislation, ABC News on June 24hosted a two-hour prime time “town hall meeting,” with ABC’s anchorsusing the White House as home base for Good Morning America, World News and Nightline. On World News, reporter David Wright claimed
“Democrats and Republicans alike” hoped Obama would succeed in fixinghealth care “because something needs to be done….The need is obvious.”
■ At the outset, the networks permitted little conservative dissent. The MRC’s Business & Media Institute calculatedthat, during the first six months of 2009, 70% of soundbites supportedObama’s liberal health care ideas, and gave short shrift to complaintsabout the hefty price tag.As opposition to ObamaCare began to take hold, journalists led a counterattack. On the July 22 Good Morning America, ABC’s Chris Cuomo indignantly askedCalifornia Govenor Arnold Schwarzenegger: “Do you believe that theRepublicans are playing politics here, at the risk of people’s healthcare?…Is this getting to be a little bit of a reckless situation?” OnNBC’s Today, Matt Lauer accusedSenator Jim DeMint: “Are you rallying conservatives to the cause ofhealth care reform? Or are you rallying conservatives to the cause ofbreaking a President?”
■ As citizens voiced opposition in townhall meetings over the summer, journalists disparaged the dissenters.Writing on AOL’s “Politics Daily” site, ex-CNN reporter Bob Franken blastedHardball host Chris Matthews blamed it all on racism: “I think some of the people are upset because we have a black president.” And Good Morning America’s Bill Weir warned “the rising anger is now ramping up concerns over the President’s personal safety.”
anti-ObamaCare protesters as “a crazed group” engaged in “organized intimidation.”
■ MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann was the most extreme, equating ObamaCare foes to suicide bombers:“When Hamas does it or Hezbollah does it, it is called terrorism. Whyshould Republican lawmakers and the AstroTurf groups organizing onbehalf of the health care industry be viewed any differently —especially now that far too many Tea Party protesters are comparingPresident Obama and health care reform to Hitler and the Holocaust?”Even as anti-Obama protesters were being vilified, the lobbying favor of ObamaCare continued. On August 6, Time senior political analyst Mark Halperin, previously political director at ABC News, declared on CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight: “We’re the only industrialized democracy that doesn’t cover every citizen. That is immoral.”
■ The broadcast networks seized on long lines at a free clinic in Los Angeles as evidence of, as CBS’s Katie Couric led her August 13 Evening News, “why many believe reform is desperately needed.” Two days later, ABC’s Dan Harris hit the same story on World News:“Tonight, a vivid demonstration of the health care crisis: A clinicthat provides free health care has been inundated with patients. Almost46 million people in this country do not have health insurance, but theproblem is a lot bigger than that….”
After Ted Kennedy passed away in August, journalists tried to use hisdeath to boost ObamaCare. “Even though he’s gone, his energy may helppush this Obama plan through,” CBS News presidential historian Douglas Brinkley hopedduring live overnight coverage just hours after Kennedy’s death wasannounced. “There is already an e-mail circulating that I’ve receivedtoday that reads simply, ‘In lieu of flowers, pass health carereform,’” NBC’s Brian Williams promoted early the next morning on Today.
■Obama’s September 9 health care speech to Congress also drew raves:“This might have been the most emotional speech I’ve seen PresidentObama give….This is very close to President Obama’s heart,” ABC’s George Stephanopoulos enthused moments after the speech ended. On Nightline, ABC’s Terry Moran salutedhow Obama “sought to draw on the grand rhetorical tradition ofPresident Kennedy and others, trying to summon the country to a greatand necessary endeavor.”By late September, however, MSNBC’s Ed Schultz was frothingat ObamaCare’s opponents, accusing them of wanting Americans to die:“The Republicans lie! They want to see you dead! They’d rather makemoney off your dead corpse!” Two weeks later, MSNBC host Dylan Ratiganseconded the inflammatory charge: “There are people that are actuallytrying to derail health care in order to take down Obama, even if itmeans half the country dies.”
■ On her September 18 CBS Evening News, Katie Couric touted a “Harvard study”that claimed “nearly 45,000 American deaths every year are linked to alack of insurance.” Neither Couric nor reporter Jim Axelrod noted the“study” was really produced by a group pushing an end to privateinsurance in favor of a single-payer system.
■ After the Senate dropped provisions for government-run insurance, ABC’s Charles Gibson frettedon December 18: “Without a public option, without an expansion ofMedicare, is it better than nothing?” ABC’s Tim Johnson vouched for thebill’s liberalism: “I would personally prefer to have the publicoption….But what’s left is not insignificant.” Two days later, onABC’s This Week, Cokie Roberts argued people were against the bill out of ignorance: “A lot of people are going to like it a whole lot once they see what’s in it….It’s just a question of understanding it.”Anti-ObamaCare candidate Scott Brown’s victory was treated as dour news by the media. NBC’s Meredith Vieiraasked Brown about his post-election phone call to Ted Kennedy’s widow:“How comfortable was that for both of you, knowing that you plan to dowhatever you can to derail what Ted Kennedy called, called ‘the causeof his lifetime,’ which is health care reform?”
■ After a year of setbacks, reporters were still quick to crown Obama victorious after his health care “summit” with Republicans. On the CBS Evening News,Chip Reid insisted that Obama had laid the groundwork for jammingthrough a final bill, saying the President had succeeded in showing“that the Republicans are the party of no, they won’t compromise, andhe now has no choice but to move ahead with Democrats alone.”
Noconservative quest has ever been treated to the helpful press coverageObamaCare has received. If it fails, liberals can’t blame a hostilemedia.