Well, the facts are not so such “fun” as they are “factual,” which would just wind up sounding silly and redundant, but then: That’s your health care system, dummy! Courtesy of American President Barack Obama’s legions of Mac-savvy hope-fiends comes Reality Check, a White House website designed to combat the lies, distortions and McConnellisms that have turned our national health care debate into a Gordian knot of misinformation and ill-repute.
The website, which was created yesterday, comes at a time when the Obama Administration is attempting to turn the tide in its “message war” against opponents of health insurance reform. And by “opponents,” I of course mean “big insurance companies and anybody who cannot understand a birth certificate.”
Speaking of the latter group, here’s a smidgen of what such reform will mean for Kentuckians:
Premiums for residents of Kentucky have risen 61% since 2000. Through health insurance reform, 621,300 to 692,400 middle class Kentucky residents will be eligible for premium credits to ease the burden of these high costs.
10% of people in Kentucky have diabetes, and 30% have high blood pressure — two conditions that insurance companies could use as a reason to deny you health insurance. Health insurance reform will prevent insurance companies from denying coverage based on your health, and it will end discrimination that charges you more if you’re sick or a woman.
The information, culled from various legitimate, footnoted sources, comes from Healthreform.gov, another White House website that — unlike, say, Glenn Beck’s website — provides more than enough citation to bore any dissenting mouth-breather into submission. Except for the parts about how fat and sick and poor we are; those facts are fun:
Roughly 2.4 million people in Kentucky get health insurance on the job, where family premiums average $11,413, about the annual earning of a full-time minimum wage job … Kentucky businesses and families shoulder a hidden health tax of roughly $1100 per year on premiums as a direct result of subsidizing the costs of the uninsured … 21 percent of children in Kentucky are obese … 22 percent of women over the age of 50 in Kentucky have not received a mammogram in the past two years… 36 percent of men over the age of 50 in Kentucky have never had a colorectal cancer screening …
Incensed? Motivated? Point your Skype-machine here, you filthy pinko.
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Yesterday, Aug 14, at Noon, I participated in a support rally in favor of the Health Care Reform bill on the Broadway side of the Federal building. It had been organized with some help from MoveOn.org. On the other side of the building, protesters were also having an event espousing their opposing views.
We saw several news crews there. We saw camera men and reporters from WLKY, WHAS11, WAVE3, and the newspapers. Also, some other reporters I did not recognize. We had a good turn out of over 50 people plus many people drove by and honked and waved at us cheerfully. It was a very positive event and I was happy to have participated. I was surprised at the lack of animosity. No one was yelling at us or being negative at all.
Later, I went back home and checked the news. I was surprised to see nothing on the news about it. I then went on their websites and found a small video piece on WHAS11 but was shocked to see that it contained only video of the protestors and was heavily biased. The reporter – one Mr. Kang – interviewed someone who gave obvious misinformation about the bill and did not challenge it at all. I believ Mr. Kang works for WHAS11 now but he used to work for a FOX affiliate so it was no surprise there, I suppose.
Now, I know that I am biased in this situation. I have definite opinions on the subject. However, that report was BLATANTLY biased in the other direction. The written part of it did mention the supporters vaguely but not a second of video was spent on the supporters. I found this very odd as the video showed far fewer protestors than we had supporters on the other side of the building.
So, I was disappointed but I waited and watched the 10 and 11 pm news. Again, I saw nothing on any station covering the protest/support rally. Then, I saw the advertisement and my jaw hit the ground. On WHAS11, there was a nice, fat, juicy advertisment at the end of the news program from “Campaing for Responsible Health Reform”. I found their website here: http://www.responsiblehealthreform.com/
This group is heavily and financially committed to opposing the Health Care Reform Act. I think it is HIGHLY suspicous that WHAS11 – which purports to be so unbias and balanced and fair and so on – was the only news program to cover the event at all BUT 1. covered it only negatively 2. let several factual errors presented by interviewed protest attenders go uncorrected and 3. they are the ones getting money from someone who opposes the bill.
Doesn’t this seem highly unethical to you? Is this something that you might investigate?
Thank you for your time.
That biased news coverage was another example of the liberal media. Oh, wait…