Obamacare - Why Public Silence Greets Government Success

[malaise]

http://prospect.org/article/why-public-silence-greets-government-success
<snip>
Last October, Obama administration officials, including those at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, urged Americans to remain calm as Ebola first appeared in the United States. One person had died from the disease in an American hospital, while new diagnoses had appeared in both Dallas and New York City. But with each new case, critics became louder and more angry—not just at the president, who was resisting calls for travel bans and mandatory quarantines, but at the whole government apparatus, which seemed unable to stop a potentially catastrophic epidemic.

“Ebola has crystallized the collapse of trust in state authorities,” columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote in The Washington Post. Ron Fournier, writing in National Journal, hit the same theme. “Ebola is a serious threat,” he wrote, “but it’s not the disease that scares me. What scares me is the fact that we can’t trust the institutions that are supposed to deal with such threats, and we can’t trust the men or women who lead them.”

By the middle of November, the outlook on Ebola had changed dramatically. Every single person who had contracted the disease in the United States had recovered from it—thanks to care at specially equipped facilities that the U.S. government either had built previously or had, in response to the crisis, retrofitted to handle Ebola cases. The administration’s decision to rely exclusively on light airport screening and self-reporting, pilloried as weak even by some fellow Democrats, had apparently done the trick. Since the imposition of those measures, not one single person had contracted the disease in the United States. In West Africa, where the epidemic had been spreading out of control, health-care workers had finally begun to contain it—thanks in part to assistance that the Obama administration had sent.

In short, the Ebola response turned out to be a clear public health success—a model for effective, responsive government action. So, of course, the earlier critics admitted their mistakes, and the media celebrated a great triumph of government policy.

Not exactly. In fact, it’s hard to tell whether anybody in America noticed. Media coverage of Ebola nearly vanished in November: According to a study by Media Matters, CNN ran 146 stories on Ebola the week of October 14, when panic was peaking. One month later, during the week of November 11, it ran just five. The change at other networks was nearly identical. Public polling on the issue stopped around Election Day, so there’s no way to tell whether confidence in the CDC, which had started falling during October, ever recovered. But the pundits and politicians who had attacked the agency (and the administration) for its supposedly feckless response were in no rush to apologize or hail its good works.

[BumRushDaShow]

1. I saw some muted reporting over the weekend

when Liberia was declared "Ebola-free" (probably "news" to a lot of the masses).

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/09/africa/liberia-ebola-outbreak-who/

But like all the other hysterical news reporting and punditry, the aftermath stories go missing... because when it doesn't bleed, it doesn't lead.

[malaise]

2. Yep

but we know the panic was mostly about the elections

[groundloop]

3. The panic was TOTALLY about the elections

As soon as the elections were over ebola had no use anymore.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

5. Did it have a measurable effect on the election results?

So many pundits were running on "getting tough" on Ebola and using the hysteria as an excuse to tear down the government when it was actually performing very competently and responsibly. I was mildly concerned about Ebola but the hysteria over it was OTT much of the time as it apparently is much harder to spread than some of the unintelligent/ill-informed pundits and politicians claimed it was and, as it turns out, the CDC was way more on top of things than it will ever be given credit for, which is extremely frustrating. *sigh*

[BumRushDaShow]

6. There were a bunch of DUers buying into the hysteria

as well, even when people pointed out the fact that tens of thousands contract and die from viruses that cause pneumonia every year - just here in the U.S. alone

[malaise]

7. Indeed

it was 'below the belt' propaganda on steroids

[daleanime]

11. Yep....

definitely.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

4. ".....because when it doesn't bleed, it doesn't lead."

Yup. Especially in this particular case.

[hfojvt]

8. with our media

we just go from one error-filled story to the next one without any sort of follow up or consequences for errors. http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026678212

[malaise]

9. Consensus scandal - I like that phrase

I've seen it after the shooting of African-American males as well.
They spew the lies and half truths with very clear agendas.

I've bookmarked that article - very interesting but long enough to set aside some time to read it properly.

Thanks

[bhikkhu]

10. Success rarely sells papers

so we rarely hear about it...possibly one of the reasons so many people think government can't do anything right.