Actually, icwhatudo’s original posting stated as fact that they were paying $20,000 a year in tuition per child. I’ve read his rebuttals; I know he now knows that is almost certainly not true. But it’s an example of how important it is to be careful with fact-checking before making accusations. No matter how true his overall point was — that this family could have afforded private health insurance — it gives the opposition ammunition to attack your credibility, if you assert anything that’s untrue when making accusations. It also gives the targets a basis on which to sue, and when you’re attacking a family that has been chosen by the Democrat machine to provide a “poster child” for a huge socialist program, there’s a very real possibility that such a suit would actually happen, with lawyers and funding provided by said Democrat machine.
And that was the only thing icwhatudo got wrong.
Have you bothered reading the shifting explanations for how, exactly, the Frosts DO manage to send their children to pricey private schools (which the children also attended before the accident, when the family allegedly "couldn't afford" health insurance)?
- Jim Manley, flak for Harry Reid, insists the children get "almost full scholarships"
- Mr. Reilly, Halsey Frost's commercial tenant (who has known the Frosts for 10 years) says it was his understanding that Frost's wealthy parents paid the tuition
- Now, according to Matthew Hay Brown in yesterday's Baltimore Sun, the story is that "The four Frost children depend on financial aid to attend private school."
Reporter Matthew Hay Brown doesn't bother to inform us
1. how much "financial aid" was provided
2. who provided it
3. whether the "financial aid" is/was a loan or a grant.
His sister Gemma, also severely injured in the accident, attended the same school prior to the accident meaning the family was able to come up with nearly $40,000 per year for tuition for these 2 grade schoolers. Confirmation both attended Park found here using edit-"find on this page"-Gemma. It will take you to an article in the schools newspaper about a fundraiser for Gemma class of 16, and Graeme class of 13.
And you are correct, we don't know that "the family" was able to come up the "$40,000" tuition.
Also, in a later article Mr. Frost was SAID to have said he had FOUR children in private school, not just these two. But again, we don't know what the tuition they are being charged is, how much they pay, whether someone else pays part, or what.
It was a question that should have been asked by the reporter, but wasn't.
And I do agree with you that we should not state as fact anything but that which is substantiated by records or by a news report from a credible news outlet. That still could end up being wrong, because news outlets get things wrong, but it would be easier to defend if it was someone else's mistake.
I thought the original did a good job of that, I missed the 2nd reference to the payments for the school.
He did not say "paying"; he said "they were able to come up with...."
They were able to secure the value of these scholarships, with a market value of $40K. It doesn't really matter how. What matters is that liberals think that "free" means no one has to pay. Actually, other parents who pay full tuition subsidize those who don't. Taxpayers subsidize those who use "government" handouts for tuition. Grandparents sometimes are the ones who pay. The point is that the family wanted this luxury level of education, when there might have been other ways to spend their money, such as on health insurance, so that the taxpayers, other parents at the school, grandparents or whomever wouldn't have been "taxed" for their children's misfortune.
Americans, particularly conservatives, are among the most generous people on earth. There is always a great outpouring for real cases of need brought to the public's attention. But most people who work for their money do not want the government to confiscate the money, redistribute it according to "progressive" ideology, and then spin it as "good conscience." It isn't charity if it isn't voluntary.