Posted on 07/21/2009 4:14:32 PM PDT by Recovering Ex-hippie
So my first copy of Consumer Reports arrives and I eagerly await exciting reviews of vacuum cleaners, pet food and garden tools. Imagine my surprise when I see that this August 2009 issue of Consumer Reports presents THEIR version of " A Prescription for Healthcare".
HUH? And so they proceed to tell me that " almost all agree that the healthcare system is BROKEN " and offer a SEVEN PAGE description of " how Consumer's Union would fix it" !
What followed was a complete commercial for Obamacare, replete with disengenuous distortions repelete with photos of examples of Americans for whom our Healthcare system has failed. ( kinda like those Obama voters who "appear " at his Townhall Meetings telling their tragic tale of woe.)
Consumer Reports "favors a National Health Insurance Exchange." Here's a clip from their rosy scenario... " couples who couldn't get or couldn't afford insurance from their employers could buy it directly from a private or public insurer through The Exhange with sliding -scale subsidies based on their income."
Then come the attacks of the opposition to nationalized healthcare...."Opponents of reform like to villify the public plan as "government takeover" of healthcare. We disagree. Its simply another insurer that uses the same private providers to deliver care."
Then there is a pont by point "refuting "of " 5 common fears of health reform"...such as "FEAR! Health reform will let facelss government bureaucrats come between you and your doctor."....
Gee, thanks for explaining away all my fears...Oh, now I'm not afraid of THAT anymore, WHEW!
After reading this article I am cancelling my subscription...after all, if they are THIS wrong about healthcare, how can they advise me on a vacuum cleaner!
Consumer Reports automated survey
Snippet: K. In terms of your political outlook, do you usually think of yourself as conservative or liberal?
I stopped supporting CU years ago - they lost their direction when they started delving into politics - if you subscribe, cancel your subscription.
A Nader publication. When is the last time Nader contributed anything worthwhile (I mean, beside during the 2000 presidential campaign)?
I’ve never trusted Consumer Reports reviews. There’s something wrong with those people.
It's how the questions are asked and what questions are used that led me to conclude they were libtards and canceled our Costco membership.
I’m surprised they didn’t endorse Japan’s healthcare system,
since they always love Japanese autos.
I had no idea they would enter such a ...discussion?
But I’d unhesitatingly slam ‘em on the spot.
You’re just finding out that CU leans left?
what is Snippet:K?
If you are asking me.....I am conservative.
I knew CR was a Leftist outfit but SI's sell-out is a shock! That's really depressing.
I am cancelling it..eagerly.
Yeah, its been a LONG time since I read it.
“Thanks for the heads up. I will send them a nasty gram and cancel my subscription.”
Same here. They should stick with vacuum cleaners.
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/aboutus/slt/index.htm
James A. Guest
James A. Guest
President, CEO
Mr. Guest became President and Chief Executive Officer of Consumers Union (CU) in February 2001 after a long career in public service and the consumer interest, including 21 years as Chair of CU’s Board of Directors. Consumers Union is an expert, independent, nonprofit organization whose mission is to work for a fair, just, and safe marketplace for all consumers. CU publishes Consumer Reports and ConsumerReports.org. The organization was founded in 1936 when advertising first flooded the mass media. Consumers lacked any reliable source of information they could depend on to help them distinguish hype from fact and good products from bad ones. Since then CU has filled that vacuum with a broad range of consumer information and a succession of presidents serving as passionate and outspoken consumer champions.
Mr. Guest continues that tradition, fighting on Capitol Hill and in the media for the consumer’s right to know about, and be protected from, unsafe and misleading products and services. Under his leadership, the organization is currently pursuing a high-profile campaign to improve the safety, quality, accessibility, and value of the health-care marketplace. This has included the successful launch of several new initiatives such as ConsumerReportsHealth.org and the Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center, which serve to educate and empower consumers to make more informed health-care decisions and to help change the market.
As the CEO of one of the leading nonprofits in America, Mr. Guest has transformed the mission-driven organization into a multimedia publisher that engages regularly with its readers, including more than 8 million subscribers to CU’s products and services and 600,000 online activists. He oversees revenues of more than $200 million and a staff of more than 600 who work at CU’s 50 state-of-the-art labs in Yonkers, N.Y., 327-acre auto test facility in East Haddam, Conn., and three advocacy offices in Washington, Austin, and San Francisco. Mr. Guest also serves on the board of Consumers International, a global federation of 250 organizations from 115 countries.
Mr. Guest’s public service career has spanned more than three decades. After graduating from Harvard law school and completing a Woodrow Wilson fellowship in economics at MIT, he worked as legislative assistant to Senator Ted Kennedy. In the early 1970s, Mr. Guest moved to Vermont where he served as Banking and Insurance Commissioner, Secretary of State, and Secretary of Development and Community Affairs.
Over the last 20 years, he has headed several public policy and advocacy groups including Handgun Control Inc. and the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, as well as Planned Parenthood of Maryland. He was also the founding Executive Director of the American Pain Foundation, a national consumer information, education, and advocacy organization for pain prevention and management.
Mr. Guest credits his very first job for introducing him to one of his biggest influences in consumer advocacy. He worked as the paperboy for Dr. Colston Warne—the first Chair of CU’s Board of Directors and a leader in the consumer movement.
They have $319,000,000 in assets and took in $229,000,000 in 2007. James A. Guest, the CEO, works 35 hours a week and received $551,406 in compensation and $116,508 in benefits.
Consumer's Union is a great example of the abuse of nonprofit corporations in this country. Which now number over 750,000. They are not a charity! They are not feeding the hungry or clothing people.
They receive government money via grants and they, of course, benefit from not paying various taxes like a real publishing business does. So tell me Obama, since the taxpayers are subsidizing Consumers Union why are you not telling them they are paying Mr. Guest too much? Hmmm???
We need to do away with 99% of the so-called nonprofits! Heck, remember Judicial Watch? That joke? They are a non profit!
Of course Consumer Reports will back Obama and the government, they are on the payroll!
Yeesh! Who knew?? Now I really feel like I have been “stuck on stupid”. ha. Great post...very enlightening.thanks.
Omigawd...they’ve been pretty far left since they started. They are as unbiased as, say, CNN or MSNBC.
Good heavens!
Now my naivete has helped alert others to this great info!
thanks for your post!
I once again am humbled by Freepers knowledge.
Whenever I've looked at their evaluations in areas where I had a level of expertise, it was clear they were either being paid by someone or they didn't know WTH they were talking about. Course, I haven't bothered to look at them for twenty years.
A few years ago I went with a female friend to look at cars. He pulled out a Consumer Reports and started trying to tell me the subcompact they were selling was safer in an accident than my pickup. He, he, he. I've worked emergency services for years, and I could believe Consumer Reports or my lying eyes.
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