For years, Fox News has been decried as a conservative puppet network dedicated to pushing the Republican agenda while masquerading as a “fair and balanced” news organization. And, well, there may be something to it. However, it looks like ABC is ready to fill that void for the President. On June 24, 2009, they’ll be airing live from inside the White House for what has been termed a “conversation” on health care. It’s just a damn shame it’s a one sided conversation.
You see, while ABCNEWS claims they will populate the audience, who will ask questions of the President, with people from various different ideological viewpoints, it’s still going to be all about President Obama’s plan. If ABCNEWS does as they claim they will do, conservatives who ask questions will only get the Obama/democrat party line. Whether it is there intent or not, this will result in a slanted view.
For example, President Obama has maintianed that his health care plan won’t increase the deficit on bit, and I think it’s fair to assume that this will be his answer to any questions regarding increased taxes or any other budgetary questions. However, what won’t come out is how the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the health care plan will cost between $1 trillion and $1.6 trillion. The CBO isn’t partisan either, so these estimates aren’t there to kill a plan. It’s their job to figure out how much something will cost. Nothing more, nothing less. Unfortunately for us, they tend to estimate on the low side.
Ken McKay, the Republican National Committee Chief of Staff says in a letter to ABC that he is “I am deeply concerned and disappointed” with ABC’s decision to exclude dissenting voices during this “conversation”. I can’t say I necessarily blame him since this is regarding what would probably become the largest domestic spending program in United States history, and the American people deserve to know the pros and cons of a program like this. They should know that not only are Obama’s estimates of the deficit impact not shared by the CBO, but the CBO also estimates that 36 million Americans would still be without health insurance, meaning we would spend $1 trillion dollars to insure 9 million Americans (using the estimate of 45 million Americans are uninsured). Yep…that’s cost effective, ain’t it?
There’s also no voices from doctor’s groups outlining the issues they have with the program. After all, most of them have already worked with government funded health care in the form of Medicare and it’s my understanding that plenty of them have opinions that should be heard. However, as it is right now, that won’t happen during this “conversation” the President claims he wants.
You see, in my mind, a conversation on policy regards differing ideas sharing their own thoughts. It’s not one person fielding questions and answering them however they want and not being held accountable for inaccuracies. It’s not a news outlet pretending to be unbiased and then only really giving one side the opportunity to speak up to criticisms.
It’s just sad that there’s not more outcry over this.
