Posted on 08/24/2009 7:58:29 AM PDT by La Lydia
For once, mainstream journalists did not retreat to the studied neutrality of quoting dueling antagonists.They tried to perform last rites on the ludicrous claim about President Obama's death panels, telling Sarah Palin, in effect, you've got to quit making things up. But it didn't matter. The story refused to die.
The crackling, often angry debate over health-care reform has severely tested the media's ability to untangle a story of immense complexity...even when they report the facts, they have had trouble influencing public opinion.
In the 10 days after Palin warned on Facebook of an America "in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel,' " The Washington Post mentioned the phrase 18 times, the New York Times 16 times, and network and cable news at least 154 times...
While there is legitimate debate about the legislation's funding for voluntary end-of-life counseling sessions, the former Alaska governor's claim that government panels would make euthanasia decisions was clearly debunked...
Ultimately, the media consensus was that Palin had attempted "to leap across a logical canyon,"... But the "death" debate was sucking up much of the political oxygen. President Obama kept denying that he was for "pulling the plug on Grandma." On Aug. 13, the Senate Finance Committee pulled the plug on the provision...
Perhaps journalists are no more trusted than politicians these days, or many folks never saw the knockdown stories. But this was a stunning illustration of the traditional media's impotence.
The eruption of anger at town-hall meetings on health care, while real and palpable, became an endless loop on television. The louder the voices, the fiercer the confrontation, the more it became video wallpaper, obscuring the substantive arguments in favor of what producers love most: conflict....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
“Journalists, Left Out of The Debate - Few Americans Seem to Hear Health Care Facts”
That is because we do not believe anything you political hacks, poorly disguised as reporters, have to say.
Yeah. Sure. For once, mainstream journalists decided not to be scrupulously unbiased and objective and just decided to push the Leftist agenda instead. Huh. First time for everything I guess. Whatever.
“But the “death” debate was sucking up much of the political oxygen. President Obama kept denying that he was for “pulling the plug on Grandma.”
This was smart by Sarah....she made him deny it.
Why can’t the press understand that the “death panel” debate has little or nothing to do with the “end of life counselling” and is totally about rationing care based upon a priority list like Oregon’s which places smoking cessation high on the list for funding, and second line cancer treatment at the bottom of the list.
No, the obvious ‘secret’ is that the media can’t report on the details of this health care bill fiasco, because the details are devastatingly bad. So they’re deliberately being vague, hoping they can slide things through for the communists. Doesn’t seem to be working, however.
Let’s see. Trust Sarah Palin or trust the mainstream media.
Gee, I am having a hard time deciding.
/s/
Despite continued contentions to the contrary, objective journalism, as with journalistic ethics, in this country is not only an oxymoron, it is virtually dead. All one has to do is view and/or read the daily journalistic contributions of the vast majority of the mainstream media concerning Barry, Obamacare, town halls, etc.
Perhaps journalists are no more trusted than politicians these days
Ya think?
Doesn’t seem to be working, and it’s driving them crazy.
We saw your effort.
We called you the vilest, filthiest words there are, you lying Marxist scum.
Then what congress and the president should do is post the entire health care bill on a website and run TV ads directing people to the website. Then wait six months for people to read it and give their opinion. Then, if the American people vote on the govt takeover of health care, at least it wasn’t forced in under the cover of darkness.
I would like to see a return of the country doctor and patients paying as they go. Health insurance should be for the cataclysmic stuff - and govt could offer vouchers to help the poor.
Of course, the purpose for a govt run health industry is POWER. When the govt gets control of health care, every decision we make in life with have govt there making sure we think and do exactly the way they want us to.
Maybe, under Obamacare, the fawning white guilt media will get a full supply of viagra to overcome its impotence and irrelevance in this debate. They put everything they had into this Joker and it looks like they’ve crapped oput. I’m sure there is a corner in NY for the great Modo to work, I doubt it will pay better.
Should be interesting. Heh,heh.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/thomas
The SRM has earned their current, disregarded status of the normal public. The public is reading the bill and they know what is in it. The SRM can’t shove their dem propoganda down the public’s throat.
Journalists aren’t lisened to because they are NOT presenting “facts,” they are pitching PROPAGANDA!!! Get real, Mr. Kurtz! Finally, some — hopefully enough — of the American People are WAKING UP to your lies! GEEZ!
Hard-hitting journalists at the AP.
That and most of them probably haven't even read the bill.
Yes, the mainstream journalists long ago broke faith with the American people. We no longer believe them, we see through them, and we have alternative ways of getting at the truth.
“even when they report the facts, they have had trouble influencing public opinion.”
If only you would report the facts, public opinion would be influenced against the liberals and their horrible intentions.
‘the former Alaska governor’s claim that government panels would make euthanasia decisions was clearly debunked...’
Debunked my shiny metal a$$.
Anytime you have ‘free’ health care, someone has to decide who gets it, as demand will always outstrip supply. It certainly happens in Canada and the UK, socialized medicine ‘utopias’.
Title IV of the House bill, HR 3200: TITLE IV—QUALITY 11 Subtitle A—Comparative Effectiveness Research SEC. 1401. COMPARATIVE EFFECTIVENESS RESEARCH. (a) IN GENERAL.—title XI of the Social Security Act is amended by adding at the end the following new part: ‘‘PART D—COMPARATIVE EFFECTIVENESS RESEARCH ‘‘COMPARATIVE EFFECTIVENESS RESEARCH ‘‘SEC. 1181. (a) CENTER FOR COMPARATIVE EFFECTIVENESS RESEARCH ESTABLISHED..(goes on for pages)
Under this provision, you don't even get a personal visit to the "death panel." This commission will determine what treatment you may receive without ever looking at your individual case. Instead, you will be assigned to a cohort or a category, and the applicable limits applied to your care. If you don't qualify, you don't get the medicine or the treatment, and you die.
I knew the minute I heard the anti-smoking crap floating around there were bigger things they were after. We forget so soon Prohibition was the same way. The so called good telling the bad what not to do. liberals can KISS MY ASS.
Well . . . to quote the Demotivation poster titled “Propaganda”:
What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us is not nearly as important as what lies directly to our faces.”
As in the media.
0bummerCare will just use the Veterans Administration's "Go Kill Yourself" booklet instead.
or maybe this: pg. 354 3 SEC. 1177. EXTENSION OF AUTHORITY OF SPECIAL NEEDS PLANS TO RESTRICT ENROLLMENT.
They forget we remember how they covered Clinton’s rear end during the reality of Monica Lewinsky. They print lies as truth, hoping the unwashed masses will believe their tripe. We have the internet now, You Tube catching the reality of statements, rather than their whitewashing those same statements. This is why they cannot reshape the debate, because the MSM tells lies as truth and we are now the truth detectors without their spin. We are not as dumb as they imagine us to be.
You got it!!! Government has been encroaching on our constitutional rights for many years. I think it’s just getting to the breaking point and enough is enough. I love my country, but, I hate where our government has gone.
And they ended up ‘pulling the provision’.
So if it wasn’t there, why’d they pull it? Because while ‘death panels’ might not have been there in name, they were there in structure, such that a tweak to a panel’s mandate would arrive at the same thing.
The media’s dismayed at the fact that while we were stupid enough to elect a cypher, we aren’t stupid enough to buy everything he’s selling on its face.
I gues the Cash for Caskets program is not working either.
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