The Great ObamaCare Telethon -- An Inside Job

So it was an infomercial after all!

ABC ObamaCare Special Turns Into Presidential Filibuster

Call this a teachable moment, but even with ABC’s best-laid plans to kick-start the debate about health care reform and not allow the “Prescription for America” special to become an “infomercial,” as many have complained – the president spent more than twice as much time as his questioners vaguely answering or not answering the questions asked of him. But the network consistently presented the event as part of the need to fix a "broken system." When asked, every one of the 164 hand-picked audience members said they felt that health care needed to be changed.

The president wouldn't shut up, and would not answer questions directly.

ABC proclaimed the need to fix a "broken system."

The audience was stacked with 100 percent pro-ObamaCare people.

At least when Billy Mays pimps Oxi Clean you harbor no illusions that you are getting a balanced point of view from a professional, objective news organization.

While Obama had to field some difficult questions -- from the audience and ABC -- he faced no Republican critics of his proposals. The network also allowed him to dominate the program with long-winded and vague answers. Out of the 75 minutes the network dedicated over the two programs (commercials excluded), the president managed to take 60 percent of that time: 45 minutes to give 19 vague responses – not exactly the “dialogue” advertised by ABC:

And the initial hour-long program never even addressed some of the most debated aspects of health care because Obama consistently ran long and was unchecked by the hosts. And while some of the members of the audience asked challenging questions, not one Republican critic of ObamaCare was given a chance to be heard.I don't know which is worse: the fact that a great number of people will actually "buy" the crapweasel merchandise The One was peddling, or the fact that the Great ObamaCare Telethon is simply smokescreen to divert the national spotlight from the "Cap & Tax" energy regulation bill which comes before the full House on Friday.

One more thing you need to know: the real executive producer of the Great ObamaCare Telethon was Linda Douglass, a former member of ABC News who quit her job last year to join the Obama campaign team. She is now the Director of Communications of the White House office of Health Care Reform.

We've had problems with her "reporting" in the past. At least Mr. Obama has made an honest woman of her by bringing her into a progressive administration.

ABC has no such excuse.