PBS newshour with Jim Lehrer.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/july-dec09/mediahealth_08-31.html In a converstion with a few media analysts (and a representative of ABC News) Jim Lehrer asked about how the media has been covering the Health CAre Reform issue.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOM ROSENSTIEL, director, Project for Excellence in Journalism: "Well, first of all, the protests have been the second biggest component of the coverage all year long. We -- we actually count these things.
And the protests have gotten more coverage, actually, than description of the health care plans, or -- and twice as much coverage as the stories about the state of the health care system."
~`
~~
"What, really, I think, surprises me in the coverage is how little coverage there is of how our health care system works, what's wrong with what -- what's wrong with it, and what the alternatives could be, based on other countries, other systems, alternative programs in the United States.
That represents only 8 percent of all the coverage that we have seen this year, vs. 55 percent about the political horse races and battles over this, and another 16 percent of the coverage on the protests.I think, before the public can even come to a conclusion about what kind of reform is needed, we need a better understanding of how our health care system works. If the -- if health care reform and the debate over it is a -- potentially, a teaching moment for the country, a learning moment, it's passing us by, by and large, and we're getting another lesson in how our political system works."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
