It's All In The Framing: NY Times Admits Shutting Out Single Payer Coverage
By Nicole Belle Thursday Oct 15, 2009 12:00pmDeleted scenes from Sicko (2007) showing the health care system in Norway.
Ever wonder why the single most sensible, economical and democratic way to provide health care to every person in the US was never really mentioned in the rhetoric whirlwind of public options, opt-outs, co-ops, triggers and free market embracing?
Part of the reason why is that the media refused to mention it:
The media analysis group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) issued an action alert September 22 titled "NYT Slams Single-Payer" that described lopsided reporting in a New York Times article about "Medicare for all," a form of a single-payer health care system. FAIR noted that the article, titled "Medicare for All? ‘Crazy,’ ‘Socialized’ and Unlikely", laid out a list of arguments against single-payer while failing to include any balancing responses from the option's supporters.
Yeah, those nutty Norwegians, not to mention Canadians, Danes, French, Brits, Swedes, etc. etc. They're all just crazy for treating health as a human right, instead of a corporate profit opportunity. FAIR continues:
It's worth noting that thousands of doctors have voiced support for a single-payer system (see, for example, Physicians for a National Health Program's letter to Barack Obama), in part because they believe they spend too much on the administrative costs associated with private insurance companies. A survey of physicians published in the Annals of Internal Medicine (4/1/08) found that 59 percent supported government-sponsored national health insurance.
Seelye also wrote that Medicare for all "would almost certainly mean a big tax increase on the middle class," before noting in parentheses: "Supporters argue that a tax increase would be somewhat neutralized by the elimination of premiums that people pay now to insurance companies." Actually, single-payer advocates argue that a payroll tax on businesses (many of which currently pay for private insurance for their employees) and a small income tax increase that would likely amount to less than what most citizens currently pay out of pocket could fund a single-payer program. By calling a "big tax increase" a near-certainty and treating the savings on insurance premiums as a claim made by advocates, the Times told readers which side it was on.
Seelye cited Stuart Altman--identified as "a Brandeis economist who specializes in health care and who advised Barack Obama in his presidential campaign," but not as a director of a managed-care company that offers health insurance plans (WhoRunsGov.com)--to make a similar point about potential tax increases, and then went to "the other end of the political spectrum" to quote Robert Moffit of the conservative Heritage Foundation: "I don't see popular support for it beyond liberals.... It's a philosophical question: Do you want to give the government that kind of power?"
Of course, one might point out that public polling for years has demonstrated that support for single-payer is much broader than merely a liberal sliver of the population (FAIR Action Alert, 3/12/09); a July 2009 tracking poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation found 58 percent support for Medicare for all. But a piece detailing the deficiencies of a "crazy" single-payer system is an unlikely venue for that.
FAIR is asking that you contact NY Times Public Editor Clark Hoyt as to why they would run such an unbalanced and factually-challenged piece that hurts Americans by lying to them about their health care options.
CONTACT:
New York Times
Clark Hoyt, Public Editor
public@nytimes.com
Phone: 212-556-7652
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The framing, they tell you what is important to think about.
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The clip on Norway is interesting. The single most important point to me is that the Norwegians consult a State Philosopher on the major questions of ethics in the use of their national oil resources which are not privatized.
When would America ever do such a thing?
There are important differences of national character.
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On the misappropriation of the language by the powerful and their agents, consider these clips from the work of the late (d 1988) Australian sociologist Alex Carey
CORPORATIONS AND PROPAGANDA
The Attack on Democracy
Part 1 - history through WWII
Part 2 - history after WWII
Mariah Gilardian at TUC radio (user supported) here, produced the clips.
The documentary on Chomsky (Thought Control in a Democratic Society) Manufacturing Consent here
George Orwell's 1984, where the purpose of Newspeak is to make political discourse impossible.
The documentary Orwell Rolls in His Grave here
Download here
In the CorpoRat State, corpoRat media are State Media.
The corpoRat state would rather every citizen expired from neglect than abandon the cash-bonanza bidness of selling health care. he money's just too good. Over 100% improvement in profits over the last 5 years? That's not a business, that's theft...
Just out of curiosity, check the board of directors of Times, Inc, and see how many have interests in FIRE sector...
What they do is tell them what to think about, and provide the "universal" vocabulary...If you think "public option" was a failure as a trope, it is because the media made it so...and indicted the whole process in doing so...
oooops...I meant this as a comment on Alice's post...
We already know why.
.
ABCNNBCBS&FOXPRAVDA
.
Even though we've been talking about it for 50 years?
If the public can be ignored it is one more good reason to never read the WaPo ans NYT's - they are worthless.
..so hard for you all to understand? Everything we do is "for profit".
You're absolutely right. we need to privatize the police force and fire-fighters stat. maybe the military too while we're at it. Think Goldman Sachs can set something up?
As a matter of fact, I'm sure this effort is well underway. Consider gated communities with private security guards, firehouses, etc. As local governmental agencies face budget crises, the rich will flock to these communities (even more than they have already).
...and don't forget all the private "troops" KBR has in Iraq.
Bunch of mercenaries, paid for with........
......our tax dollars!
which responds only to calls from AIG insureds, no matter what else is burning. See Harper's (not on-line yet), this month...
I thought they were saying "for Prophet"
NYT is just as much in the pocket of the industries as the politicians they are supposed to police.
Anything he does is closing the gate after the bull's loose.
and he don't/won't give a flying fuck anyway, cuz he's following orders...
utters a phrase that aptly describes himself ...and all the other Corporate-media hacks: PATHETIC PROPAGANDIST!!
Why ask a question to which you already know the answer?
Attorneys in a court of law and politicians in congress NEVER ask a question unless they already know the answer.
There is such a thing as a leading question, or the "rhetorical" question in which no answer is expected
But more often than not it's petitio principii.
The thought just crossed my mind. . .
The reason Rush wanted to buy an NFL team?
How else does a rich white racist own people since slavery was abolished?
I'm Shocked, SHOCKED, I tell ya. No one could have ever seen THIS SHIT coming from such a liberal news source, like the New York Fucking Times. I'm sure there'll been hell to pay, like 'Drinks all 'round!' or some sort of heinous punishment.
For those of you who might really be shocked, try a dose of Chomsky, a la
Manufacturing Consent
really pisses off the single payer supporters that stuck with it as they watched many Bloggers that were in support of SP turn on their heels to support a public option as soon as it became the default Democratic party position.
I am glad that C&L has stuck with giving coverage to single payer even as they put up posts supporting the Public Option.
It is not like it was a hard thing to do? We were doing that from the get-go at ePluribus Media, as well.
for over twenty years....
And I am NOT a supporter of "The Public Option". From what I have read it is being set up to fail with only about 17 million Americans ELIGIBLE to join it. These will NOT be the young, healthy up and comers who will most likely fall into the gap of simply being MANDATED TO COMPLY OR FACE A FINE.
The Public Option will obviously be subsidized with our tax dollars and all other insurance, besides Medicare, Medicaid and the VA will fall into the trap of the for-profit schemers (along with their Congressional counterparts...) Snakes and unethical snakes all.
I am eagerly awaiting the full House debate/vote on the Weiner Amendment to H.R. 3200. I can't wait to see who has the guts to vote for it and face the wrath of the mighty DNC!!! (Rahm Emanuel)
That is if Pelosi doesn't try to renege on her promise to Weiner....or if he doesn't withdraw the amendment under pressure from the mighty DNC!!! (Rahm Emanuel)
I can just hear Emanuel on the phone with Weiner now, "You wouldn't want us to have to run somebody else against you next year, now would you?"
According to Waxman's office it looks like this debate should be taking place around Nov. 1st or so.
Is the goal.
It will take more than one piece of legislation to get there.
Public option and Single payer are concurrent goals.
If the public option is implemented in such a way that it becomes a total flustercuck, then you can forget about steps B, C and D.
other things that are not total clusterfuX?
we're crazy on this side of the border.Single Payer Healthcare for all
the next train to Norway?
The rest of the world could learn a lot from Norwegians. They live in a happy, creative environment and are treated with respect by their government.
A paid, two-week tropical vacation every year to escape the doldrums of winter? A car if I'm having transit troubles? I am so envious.
I'm moving to Norway!
TAXES! And they have been INDOCTRINATED into believing that it's OK to do so. They have some rotten cradle-to-grave care over there, their parks and streets are clean. What's more, you can ski just about any old time you want in the winter. Crazy people...
They must be freaking insane!
;)
some crazy ass guy was running for office, saying he'd raise a certain tax so they could pay for a certain benefit. And HE WON! And my brainwashed relatives thought he was cool!
This is where my gramma grew up. It's TERRIBLE!
OK. I need to stop the snark, lest anyone think this is at all serious...:P
but I hope that's not a midday shot.
it could be high noon. It's a degree or 3 above the Arctic Circle...However, in the summer, it's just the opposite!
It kinda looks like the place where my grandmother grew up!
They continue their whaling industry. I wish they'd stop.
it's not as enlightened as their other policies.
I suspect that people from other countries look at the way we raise livestock in confinement (small pens ass deep in their own crap) and don't consider that very ethical.
When I see hunters arming up to shoot defenseless wild animals, I don't see a lot of sport in that.
But because we do not eat whale and dolphins, they are evil. And we sit at God's right hand.
It is a bit hypocritical and we should clean up the crap in our own country before we start tossing rocks at others.
I appreciate where your hearts are, I love animals myself. I just feel the need to point out the hypocrisy.
For canucks, the annual seal hunt in the Far North comes to mind.
Many people find it offensive, but it's part of the culture and centuries-old traditions of those who live there.
Governor General Michaelle Jean on a recent trip to Nunavut:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30945672/
the island prison looks more like a resort . And they would not extradite the american back to the US , because we do not meet their minimum standars , talk about a slap in the face .
Even the sewer system is innovative. Interesting stuff!
Hoyt already published an item responding to this action alert, and he agreed with FAIR. See here: http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3926&print...
Is he printing a retraction, even a correction?
Or just "promising" it won't happen again.
Bullshit!
if or whenever European-style, universal health care is provided to the Murkin people...
That Kucinich, what a loon.
From HR 676 Summary:
First, they cave to the corporate position. Then long after the damage is done they do a mea culpa. Does Judy Miller and the War, Valerie Plame and CIA outings ring a bell. The NYTs troubles are porportionate to their lack of journalistic integrity.
Americans lack the sense of national community that many other nations have.
That sense of national community means that all French workers go on strike when their work contracts are threatened.
The Norwegians craft a system that shares the wealth of their national resources, and genuinely works for the benefit of the Norwegian people.
But in the US we identify more stongly with our tribe, defined by race, religion, political persuasion, gender oreintation, regional prejudice, economic status, etc, etc.
Ask a Conservative what it means to be an American and you'll hear the Conservative value system projected onto America. Ask one of us, a liberal or progressive, what it means to be an American, and we'll recite our own version of true American values.
Divided into factions we are.
Very well stated, MountainMan23.
Consider Alexis de Tocqueville versus today, the consistency and the deviation from his view in 1835.
He saw the rise of the equality of opportunity here while Europe was then still more socially and economically stratified.
Now the Europeans have fought their way forward and we have fallen back.
We have enormous stratification of wealth and income and even use the term oligarchs. Those same oligarchs mean to encourage the perception of the divisions you point to. Anything but the acknowledgment that our exploitation is class war.
That is the purpose of their propaganda.
Where in the world did we go so wrong and is it even possible to stop the madness?
I would say that the primary difference is capitalism vs. socialism. Capitalism works in a young country with resources to exploit, but once these natural resources start to dry up, there is nothing left to exploit but the people. Yet half the people in this country view socialism as something evil and you look at these tea-baggers and think, "Is it even possible to educate these people to the level necessary to advance our society?"
I'm thinking no, not in my lifetime. Forward my mail, I'm going ex-pat.
Cool to see my home, Norway, in such a good light. And yeah, one has to admit, compared to policies in the US and other places, things are pretty great here.
That doesn't stop our whiners (spoiled ignorant brats) and right wingers and monopolistic, greedy and disloyal corporations from trying to topple this society and replace it with something... well far more similar to what you find in the US today.
You know the 25% who always stood behind Bushco in the US? Well, our version of that demographic vote Fremskrittspartiet (FrP) here, a party which campaigns based on lies, half truths, distortions and impossible logic and budgets and which gets its support from playing to people's lowest instincts, their fear, their bigotry and especially their ignorance. Sounds familiar?
Perhaps I should mention that during a political debate leading up to this summer's election, the leader of FrP, Siv Jensen, indicated that they are hostile to the idea of the social programs for the weak and poor here and referred to it as charity or gifts from the state. This caused slight furore because no-one here expects any politician to dismantle our welfare state. It's really no surprise that a Manchurian Candidate party like FrP hold that position, but it is quite ironic since one big part of their voter support comes from ignorant welfare recipients.
It has been well publicized that the U S ranks 37th in health care among the nations of the world. However, I have never seen any data on where the industrialized countries that have national health care rank in the standings. My guess is they all rank higher. Seems to me it would help make the case for the Public Option, if so. Anyone know?
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