NY Times Prints Health Care Articles "K Street" Style

[Joanne98]

I had planned to publish this yesterday, but alas, I was delayed and another day adds another piece of evidence to my case.

Today, The New York Times released the latest in a series of articles on health care that slants language and propagates unsubstantiated facts to create the perception that Americans oppose fixing our broken health care system.

Today's article, "For Public, Obama Didn't Fill in Health Blanks," repeated an unsubstantiated claim that the paper made yesterday that America is growing "increasingly anxious" about a public plan option and meaningful health care reform. The article doesn't cite any poll numbers, instead, it bases its conclusions on interviews with a handful of people.


Yesterday's article, "Obama Moves to Reclaim the Debate on Health Care." made the top of the Times webpage along with this teaser: "President Obama sought to convince an increasingly skeptical American public that proposed changes to the health care system would benefit them and strengthen the economy."



"Increasingly skeptical." "Increasingly anxious." You see a pattern? The articles suggest that public sentiment is shifting in the wind; suddenly a wind-sock in the Gulf of Mexico is blowing the horrifyingly wrong direction. Barometric pressure is dropping at an alarming rate. Do you feel your pulse beginning to quicken? If so, you've been had by the same paper that rewarded Judith Miller with a massage, manicure and martini the day she got out of jail and after publishing a bunch of bogus articles about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq before the invasion.


Don't doubt the danger of this manipulation. Articles like these create a false reality that leads to an actual change in public perception. All of these Americans that the New York Times is claiming are increasingly skeptical about fixing the costs and perils of health care, read articles like this and begin to wonder if they are alone in supporting strong health care reform. Then, they decide to follow the example of their neighbors and oppose health care reform--except their neighbors were never skeptical either before reading a slew of articles like this. Works perfectly for the insurance and health care industry.


http://www.opednews.com/articles/NY-Times-Prints-Health-Car-by-Dean-Powers-090724-954.html

[annabanana]

1. All that phony hand-wringing about Iraq has just been exposed

for the theater piece that it was...