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.

New York Times Poll Stacked With Obamaphiles

It's an old story by now: the New York Times and CBS manipulating polling data in search of a result that matches their "foregone" conclusions. But the latest round deserves to be mentioned, lest we forget that the "Paper of Record" is a broken one.

(CNSNews.com) - A New York Times/CBS News poll released Saturday that showed broad bipartisan support for President Obama’s health care reform, over-sampled Obama voters compared to McCain voters, critics say.

The poll, administered June 12-16, found that 72 percent of respondents favored the creation of a government health-insurance plan that would compete with private insurers.

Other polls have shown no similar results. In fact, some polls show less public support for government health care today than existed in 1993, the last time a White House and Congress attempted the feat.

Out of 895 respondents, 24 percent were Republicans, 38 percent Democrats, and 38 percent were independents, according to a June 20 release from CBS News. While the release says the sampling was conducted at random, those numbers are significantly below the 32.6 percent who identify themselves as Republican according to a May survey from the nonpartisan Rasmussen Reports.

Similarly, the Times/CBS poll said 48 percent of respondents had voted for Obama, versus 25 percent for McCain, a nearly two-to-one advantage for Obama supporters.

In other words, whatever methodology the poll was using, it was predetermined to find a preponderance of those who would give them the answer they sought.

If It Looks Like a Propaganda Broadcast ...

Today's Drudge Report screams the headline

ABC TURNS PROGRAMMING OVER TO OBAMA;
NEWS TO BE ANCHORED FROM INSIDE WHITE HOUSE

On the night of June 24, the media and government become one, when ABC turns its programming over to President Obama and White House officials to push government run health care -- a move that has ignited an ethical firestorm!

Highlights on the agenda:

ABC NEWS anchor Charlie Gibson will deliver WORLD NEWS from the Blue Room of the White House.

The network plans a prime-time special -- 'Prescription for America' -- originating from the East Room, exclude opposing voices on the debate.

As is expected, the Republicans are crying foul, and ABC News is proclaiming itself totally professional and innocent of any forthcoming collusion.

Ken McKay of the Republican National Committee, in part, said this:

Today, the Republican National Committee requested an opportunity to add our Party's views to those of the President's to ensure that all sides of the health care reform debate are presented. Our request was rejected. ...

In the absence of opposition, I am concerned this event will become a glorified infomercial to promote the Democrat agenda. If that is the case, this prime time infomercial should be paid for out of the DNC coffers. President Obama does not hold a monopoly on health care reform ideas or on free airtime. The President has stated time and time again that he wants a bipartisan debate. Therefore, the Republican Party should be included in this prime time event, or the DNC should pay for your airtime.

ABC News vice-president Kerry Smith responded that McKay was impugning ABC's professional integrity:

"ABC NEWS alone will select those who will be in the audience asking questions of the president. Like any programs we broadcast, ABC News will have complete editorial control. To suggest otherwise is quite unfair to both our journalists and our audience."

Perhaps, but I think McKay has the better point. ABC has already given the impression of lack of balance in its decision to present this program from the White House, and by refusing to include the Republican's response. Unless ABC is very, very aggressive in questioning the precepts of the Obama health care plan, it runs the risk of having this program look like state propaganda.

Since government-run health care is the very essence of "state-run" legislation, the last thing you want Americans to see is something that looks like propaganda Goebbels-style.

Or maybe ABC and the Obama people are past the point of caring what we think.


[NOTE: I fully expect the Drudge link to expire within 24 hours, as is common with that site.]