Media Blackout on Single-Payer Healthcare: FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting)

[Better Believe It]

Media Blackout on Single-Payer Healthcare
FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting)
March 7, 2009

Major newspaper, broadcast and cable stories mentioning healthcare reform in the week leading up to President Barack Obama's March 5 healthcare summit rarely mentioned the idea of a single-payer national health insurance program, according to a new FAIR study. And advocates of such a system--two of whom participated in yesterday's summit--were almost entirely shut out, FAIR found.

Single-payer--a model in which healthcare delivery would remain largely private, but would be paid for by a single federal health insurance fund (much like Medicare provides for seniors, and comparable to Canada's current system)--polls well with the public, who preferred it two-to-one over a privatized system in a recent survey (New York Times/CBS, 1/11-15/09). But a media consumer in the week leading up to the summit was more likely to read about single-payer from the hostile perspective of conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer than see an op-ed by a single-payer advocate in a major U.S. newspaper.

Over the past week, hundreds of stories in major newspapers and on NBC News, ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, NPR and PBS's NewsHour With Jim Lehrer mentioned healthcare reform, according to a search of the Nexis database (2/25/09-3/4/09). Yet all but 18 of these stories made no mention of "single-payer" (or synonyms commonly used by its proponents, such as "Medicare for all," or the proposed single-payer bill, H.R. 676), and only five included the views of advocates of single-payer--none of which appeared on television.

In contrast, the terminology of choice for detractors of any greater public-sector role in healthcare--such as "socialized medicine" and "government-run" healthcare--turned up seven times on TV, including once on ABC News's This Week (3/1/09) and five times on CNN. CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has herself adopted this terminology in discussing healthcare reform, stating (CNN Newsroom, 2/26/09) that "if in time, Americans start to think what President Obama is proposing is some kind of government-run health system--a la Canada, a la England--he will get resistance in the same way that Hillary Clinton got resistance when she tried to do tried to do this in the '90s."

The views of CNN's senior medical correspondent notwithstanding, opinion polling (e.g., ABC News/Washington Post, 10/9-19/03) suggests that the public would actually favor single-payer.

Please read the complete article at:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/07-6

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. Harry and Louise, Part 2: Healthcare Bugaloo.

[DKRC]

2. M$M = Propaganda

"See in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." ~ Bush


"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it." ~ Joseph Goebbels

[byeya]

16. Under the original Clinton plan, the NY Times had 73 articles on

the alternatives and mentioned single payer only once and that was to dismiss it out of hand. These were "news" articles, not editorials.
Why is it called Herald Square? Can't wait for some kid to ask: Why is it called Times Square?

[slipslidingaway]

3. Same thing happened during the debates, when single payer

HC was mentioned, there were never any follow up questions from the moderators and there were no comments from other participants. They wanted the issue to fade away as quickly as possible.


Kucinich on Kucinich health plan - Brown & Black Forum
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWupJvXSegU


Dennis Kucinich talks about his Universal Healthcare Plan at AFSCME FORUM on 2/21/07 and how the other Democratic Candidate's Healthcare Plan's All Include a roll for the Large "for Profit" Health ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOB0f3I1AXk

[slipslidingaway]

4. delete - dupe

[biopowertoday]

5. PBS News Hr had a segment on the summit but NO mention of single payer!!!

[biopowertoday]

6. Everyone needs to pass this onto news outlets NOW please.

[Faryn Balyncd]

7. K & R

[Skidmore]

8. I'd chalk it up to simple media navel-gazing. Why should they

report on health care when the talking heads and their bosses can afford insurance and have access to good health care? The Fairness Doctrine...well that impacts them directly and can affect the bottom line of of their corporations.

[uponit7771]

11. Yeap, once the issue gets more ratings they'll do an about face...

[tomp]

14. based on the article, that is incorrect.

the article states they are talking about it, but talking about it unfairly, leaving out the only real solution.

[Delphinus]

9. Bump.

[Skidmore]

12. Freepers bump....

DUers kick.

[Delphinus]

17. Thanks!

I'll remember that! I would not ever in this lifetime want to be thought of as a Freeper!

[WCGreen]

10. Why is this happening?

Look at how much health insurance as well as other insurance companies that have health insurance as part of their company advertise. They have got to be in the top 5 of major areas of advertising.

[chill_wind]

13. K & R n/t

[tomp]

15. this is obama's fault.

he doesn't have the balls to go after insurance and pharma. that's it.

chill out, people, obama's got this....right.

[Delphinus]

20. I can't tell if you're being

sarcastic or not.

At any rate, single payer truly is the only way.

[Supersedeas]

18. but do check out the Big Pharma Ad $$$$ these TV "journalist' cling to

[Freddie Stubbs]

19. It wasn't mention because it isn't being considered by those in power

[Lydia Leftcoast]

21. Most Americans don't know that Canada and the UK have very different systems

Canada: Physicians are in private practice, but the government pays the bills

UK: Most physicians and other health workers are government employees, although there is also a high-cost private sector

[Supersedeas]

24. the have real journalists too

[Honeycombe8]

22. Maybe that's because no one in the admin. or Congress is seriously proposing that system?

No one with a chance of getting others to vote with him/her?

No point in wasting time on a theoretical plan that is not being considered by the politicians or will be considered by Congress. I guess.

[blindpig]

23. Says it all.

Medicine Inc calls the tune to which the administration and the Congress dances. The needs of the American people are of no consequence.

[emmadoggy]

25. ARRRGGGHHH!!!!

Fuckers.