For press, there are little or no "risks" for GOP in health care debate

[babylonsister]

http://mediamatters.org/blog/200909220003

For press, there are little or no "risks" for GOP in health care debate
September 22, 2009 8:41 am ET by Eric Boehlert


I was reminded of that after seeing this Time headline:

The Risks for Dems Going It Alone on Health Care

Time wasn't doing anything unusual with its headline. The Beltway press has been hitting this points for months now: How might the health care battle damage Democrats, which is an interesting angle since there are, y'know, two major parties in American politics. (You're just not going to see many "The Risks for GOP Going It Alone on Health Care" headlines this year.)

Picking up where the press left off with the stimulus "debate," when journalists fretted over how that legislation might hurt Democrats--and only Democrats, and how the GOP won by simply resisting the White House, reporters seem only interesting in detailing potential woes for Dems.

I'm not saying journalists have to conclude that opposing health care reform will hurt the GOP, because I don't think anybody knows yet if that's the case. But it would be nice if, on occasion, the press acknowledged that possibility. It'd be nice if reporters spent time considered both sides of the ledger rather than portraying the health care push as posing serious downsides for only one party.