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Something very weird about the coverage of the healthcare bill in my local rag

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Phoebe Loosinhouse Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Oct-30-09 02:20 PM
Original message
Something very weird about the coverage of the healthcare bill in my local rag
I get the Virginian Pilot - premier fish wrap in Hampton Roads.

On the front page of this morning's paper above the fold is a large color picture of Boehner, obscured up to his nose behind a stack of computer paper. Super-imposed over the picture are the words : 1990 Pages. Here's How it Stacks Up. Underneath the picture is the caption: Using a copy of the bill for emphasis. Rep. John Boehner, House Minority leader, said it's a heavy handed government takeover of health care.

(Note, instead of all this description I would happily provide you with a link to this story, except that I can find it NOWHERE on the Virginia Pilot's website pilotonline.com despite the fact it was the headliner this morning)

Ok, now to the story itself.

The subheadline is: 'Democrats unveil their bill, complete with a public option. They say it will reduce federal deficits and lower health costs." And then onto the story, which is "from wire reports"

I am finally getting to the weird part - thanks for your patience.

Nowhere in this entire story is the most amazing thing of all - that all unemployed and/or uninsured people or people who have pre-exisiting conditions and who have been turned down because of that CAN GET COVERAGE AS OF JANUARY 1st, 2010 in the newly created High Risk Pool. There is NOTHING in this story about all the immediate implementations that occur as of Jan.1 !!!!!!!!!!!!
this stuff ---- http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8723453


If you lived in my area you would have no friggin' idea that ANYTHING was going to happen before 2013. If you were someone who has been denied healthcare for pre-exisisting conditions, your heart would be just as heavy after reading the story as before reading the story. That's the quality of "journalism" in my area. BUT, I don't think it's confined to just my area. I recall reading various wire reports yesterday and finding little or nothing about this. It was only when I opened the bill myself and started reading it that I discovered this very big deal. And it's not like it was hidden or buried - the National High Risk Pool is the FIRST item discussed in the bill after the Table of Contents. And much later on I found the list of 14 Immediate Implementations in a Kos Diary by slinkerwink - NOT in any MSM.

Now my real message. I think this is intentional sabotage by the media and we need to call them on it. Their "reporting" is leaving out all the exciting, immediate "carrots" that the public will be getting and is heavily lopsided to the "stick" part of the story. Start paying attention to what is being covered and what is being left out. Carry around that list of 14 Immediate Implementations and pass it out to people. They need to know that good stuff will happen fast if this bill passes. The media is trying to keep that part of the story a big secret.


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kestrel91316 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Oct-30-09 02:49 PM
Response to Original message
1. Sounds like it's time for you to write a LTTE and also post comments on their website about
this extremely partisan blatant omission.
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Phoebe Loosinhouse Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Oct-30-09 02:53 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. Well, it's not just here
I just was making a post about how widespread this phenomenom is (which I lost - sob!) Anyway, I had a list of all the first breakout stories from The Washington Post, the New York Times, Reuters, Yahoo News, Christian Science Monitor, and NO ONE was mentioning the National High Risk Pool at all.

How can it be that NO ONE is writing about it?

And people wonder why people are turning to the Internet for their news?
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Phoebe Loosinhouse Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Oct-30-09 02:57 PM
Response to Original message
3. Proof of my theory - Google "National High Risk Pool"
You know what comes up? Nada. Zilch. Almost NOTHING!!!!!
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Phoebe Loosinhouse Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Oct-30-09 04:59 PM
Response to Original message
4. kick! nt
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Phx_Dem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-31-09 10:19 AM
Response to Original message
5. This is one reason newspapers are going out of business.
Edited on Sat Oct-31-09 10:20 AM by Phx_Dem
If we wanted a one-sided ideological opinion, we can get it for free by reading liberal or conservative blogs on the Internet.

Newspapers, like TV news, are supposed to report unbiased facts, without commentary or opinion. Opinions and commentary are supposed to be reserved for the editorial page and for commentary news shows such as Olberman, Schutlz, Maddow.

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Hekate Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-01-09 01:24 AM
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6. Kick
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