On MSNBC's "Morning Joe" (@JoeNBC) this morning (7/24/09), we saw the most inexcusable health industry propaganda get voiced without any comment or correction whatsoever by at least four pundits on the set. In a segment with Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), the Republican congressman quoted dubious research on Health Care reform produced by the Lewin Group. As we have learned all week, Lewin is owned by United Health Group, one of the nation's largest insurers. Yet despite this well publicized fact, Mike Barnicle, who obviously knew the truth about Lewin, twice asks Price "Who funds?" the Lewin group. Price appeared nervous and stumbling, no doubt because he knew he was about to be busted for trying to repeat a discredited source. He can only manage to awkwardly blurt out that Lewin is a "non partisan research organization." Shocking to any informed person watching, Mike Barnicle just lets this pass. He never follows up on why he kept asking Congressman Price who funds the Lewin Group. He just lets the sensational (and erroneous) "research fact" (which absurdly claimed that 100 million Americans will be automatically moved from a private to a public health care program) stand, without informing viewers about what so many already know about Lewin. Next on camera, @CarlosWatson, whose facial expression reveals that he knows what a whopper was just told; but, he also chooses to let it go by—but not without a validating "thanks" to the other GOP Congressman appearing with Price (Dave Camp (R), for "outlining those 3 points about as clear as I've heard anyone from that side of the aisle do it." It is almost a certainty that Watson, @morningMika and the the rest of the Morning Joe "cast" knew the real story (because Washpost, Huffpost, @DavidShuster, Ed Schultz, Twitter and many others have covered it repeatedly all week.) This incident is a perfect illustration of how the right's noise machine is fooling the American people all over again, using easily debunked lies and misinformation, and how this very kind of irresponsible broadcasting—which they so often pretend is "journalism"—is empowering them to do it. So in the final weeks of what may be the last Health Care fight for another 40 years, will America's bloggers—so often touted as the only remnant of a Fourth Estate we have left—hold MSNBC (and much of the MSM) accountable for this kind of propaganda enabling, using it to illustrate just how the deck is stacked against truth tellling? We shall see.
TweetCategory Archives: Health Care
Health Care FAQ
Quick Facts for Advancing Meaningful Health Care Reform in the United States
Health Care: Too many Americans Just Don't Get It.
Basic Fact Primers and Debunkers Chosen for their simplicity.
- Health Care Reform Myths (Point for point). List of healthcare reform myths that distort reality or manipulate the public narratives.
- National Health Care Options. A basic primer on how major nations do it (and what the costs are.)
- Three Big Republican Lies About Health Care The three biggest lies, neatly explained,
- Economist Magazine Sheds Light on The Real Costs of Health Care Must reading for anyone trying to grasp the economic realities of our health care crisis.
- Inside HAARM: Late Night Brainstorming Session A fanged spoof by SEIU, which sets the tone for understanding just how malevolent the health care industry has been, and plans to be as the debate intensifies. Note the players listed at the bottom, who are all behind most anti-health care advertising you see.
- Massachusetts Health Reform FAIL Doctors Give Massachusetts Health Reform a Failing Grade – Poor Early Outcomes Raise Red Flags, Only Private Insurers Profit
- 100 Year History of Public Health Insurance A Google Timeline, showing how consistent the arguments have been against public health insurance since 1909. Each time, it's the wealthy, and people who don't need health insurance, deciding the issue for everyone else. And the problem just gets worse. Those who don't learn from history… [ http://bit.ly/PublicInsuranceTimeline ]
- Many Video Shorts about different facts and issues (updated regularly) Produced by Lee Stranahan (Huffington Post blogger)
General FAQs
- Single Payer Questions and Answers (PNHP) Generally focused on single payer, but explains many issues related to the general debate, too.
- A Glossary of Health Care Reform Definitions Francine Hardaway defines the terms you need to know [ http://bit.ly/healthcareglossary ]
- The Public Option and the Hope of Health Care Reform American Prospect Article explains core concepts behind a public option.
Health Care Around the World
- National Health Care Options. A basic primer on how major nations do it (and what the costs are.)
- Debunking Myths about Canadian Health Care Opponents mangle and distort facts to discredit successful system providing universal care. [ http://bit.ly/healthcarefacts ]
- Sick Around the World (Frontline) How Other Nations Pay for their Healthcare, and Have Better Outcomes. [ http://bit.ly/sickaroundtheworld ]
- Australia
Opposition Research and Health Industry Disinformation
- 33.7 Million Canadians are NOT Shona Holmes
- A Canadian blogger eloquently exposes the absurd propaganda machinery at work in the United States, aimed at destroying health care reform on behalf of Conservatives and the ridiculous Health Care industry profits that they are devoted to protecting.
- Conservatives for Patient Rights (CPR) Factcheck.org exposes big budget Media Campaign run (and personally funded with over $20 million) by Rick Scott, former partner of former President George W. Bush, and multi-millionaire health company executive who made his fortune building huge hospital chains and clinics that make enormous profits from the current state of health care. [ http://bit.ly/cpr_lies ]
- Public Option Enemy #1 (CPR's Rick Scott) Mother Jones story on Scott.
- Health Industry Exec Admits Michael Moore's SIcko was Right And that the Insurance industry tried to kill the film's exposure and message.
- MSNBC's Morning Joe Fails to Correct Discredited GOP Data Source A story first written about by this site.
Organizations and Resources
- UsHeatlhCrisis.com [ http://ushealthcrisis.com/ ]
- Physicians for National Health Care Reform Physicians for a National Health Program is a non-profit research and education organization of 16,000 physicians, medical students and health professionals who support single-payer national health insurance.
Statistics and Rankings
- U.S. Ranks dead last in preventable deaths Mostly due to poor access to timely & affordable health care.
- Word Health Care Ranking Contrary to popular mythology, the United States was ranked 37th in 2000, the last time an exhaustive survey was done (things have degraded since then).
- Economic Imperative for Health Care Charts
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