"Think Again: Why Can’t the Media Explain Our Woes"

[enlightenment]

A new article by Eric Alterman at American Progress. Interesting read.

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/09/ta091009.html

The most moving part of President Barack Obama’s powerful speech Wednesday night was undoubtedly the letter from which he read, sent to him from “our beloved friend and colleague” Ted Kennedy. Kennedy had asked, back in May when he wrote it, that the letter should not be opened until after his death. As Obama reported, Kennedy “expressed confidence that this would be the year that health care reform—‘that great unfinished business of our society,’ he called it—would finally pass,” and in doing so, define “the character of our country.” Indeed, it is amazing that while Kennedy served for more than four decades in the Senate and dedicated much of his energy and superb legislative skills to the passage of just such a program, the problem has only gotten worse over time.

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Halimi answers his own question: “American politics is so poisoned by money flowing from industrial and financial lobbies that the only proposals ensured a smooth ride through Congress are those that cut taxes.” Indeed, according to BusinessWeek, in 15 states more than half of the “market” is held by one private health care company, and this kind of monopoly profit is not going to go off quietly into the night. And yet this essential fact is often missing from a media debate that focuses on nonexistent, often crazy issues like imaginary “death panels” and whether or not Sarah Palin would be forced to murder her own child.

Late in the dog days of August, The Washington Post published a piece by T.R. Reid, a reporter who has left the paper and written a book called The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care, delineating what he called “five myths about health care around the world.” It’s worth reading the piece, not only for the information it offers, but for the picture of just how far our debate has drifted from reality. Barack Obama is right. We do have a health care system that is not only unsustainable in the long term, but a great shame on the heads of those of us who can afford to buy the health care we need whenever we need it. Not only are the alleged horror stories about “socialized medicine” untrue, but its superiority to our own system is largely absent from our debate.

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In the meantime, shouldn't we be able to at least discuss these issues, instead of largely ignoring them and focusing on the shouts and screams of hysterical crazy people who accuse our president of being a racist, a Communist, and a Nazi, only to be rewarded with guest appearances (and even their own shows) on Fox? Can America have fallen so far that this is our answer to Ted Kennedy regarding the content of our character? Barack Obama gave one answer last night but, let’s face it, it rested on “hope.” Congress and the American people will give a more final answer in the coming months; let’s hope it demonstrates a different form of “character” than that on display on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox, alas.

[The Magistrate]

1. An Excellent Piece, Ma'am: Thank You for Sharing It