When it comes to your views on Obamacare and healthcare reform, there are facts, and then there are more facts.
Which facts you share depends to a disturbing extent on from where they are derived.
I am a former journalist, and now a consumer advocate who tracks the healthcare policy debate. And I am ashamed of the unabashed spin that print journalism puts on this debate on a daily basis. I am speaking specifically of the three newspaper that really matter: the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. No, they do not misrepresent the facts. That would be far too obvious. But they do manage the debate by what stories they pursue and how they are presented.
Even a casual daily reading of these publications refinforces the view. The Journal, more conservative and business oriented, focusess heavily on the impact of legislation on business and the economy, raising questions and creating doubt. The Times and Post, which lean to the left, are intent on illustrating current health care woes and discounting criticisms of reform. They each do an admirable job of reporting, albeit with a decided slant. But, if you only read one, you sorely miss the complete context the debate deserves.
Growing up as a journalist in the 1970s, I was admittedly altruistic. Print journalism was only pure form of news reporting, I thought. Television journalism was looked upon with disdain. Indeed, the frequent histironics of today’s Fox News and MSNBC especially serve as a sad vindication of our views. This isn’t news, this is dribble.
I am saddened to see that print journalism is following that course.
The healthcare debate deserves unbiased, comprehensive news reporting. We are not getting it. That is a shame.
Comedian Bill Maher, who hosts the relatively liberal HBO show “Real Time with Bill Maher,” questioned last week whether the American intellect is sharp enough to understand complex issues such as health-care reform. He pointed out half of all Americans don’t know how many senators their states have, nor do they know who America’s opponent was in the Revolutionary War.
Comment by azagent — August 14, 2009 @ 1:47 pm |