When media goes bad people follow! A fact that was recently published by Gallup Polling,” Americans get their news from television.”
Furthermore, it is safe to assume CBS News frequently comes-in at the top end of viewer rating surveys.
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| Intern level electronic journalism from CBS |
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| Stumbling on the truth via Fox News |
CBS fails in its obvious effort to refute or expose Presdiet Obama’s claim that people with medical coverage can keep the coverage. Most viewers should have thought a bit deeper via asking the basic question related to the quality of Ms. Barette’s plan coverage. If most viewers should have questioned the bottom line veracity of Ms Barette’s complaint, CBS News writers and producers should have sought and accomplished a basic step in credible journalism: verify information via digging a little deeper. Their failure to do so led the network down a dark path consistently traveled by Fox News.
CBS profiled a 56-year-old Florida resident who a seems prototypical of what is reported as 5% of the population who feel that have been wronged by the ACA. The issues relates being forced to give-up the insurance they so cherish. In the case of Ms Barrette, one has to wonder about her true understanding of quality and comprehensive medical coverage.
Watch as CBS’s Jan Crawford profiles Ms. Dianne Barrette.
The impact of the interview stands as is, if one does not pay close attention to the CBS’s Jan Crawford. Ms. Barrette’s case may qualify for an ACA subsidy. Mediaite covered the misleading (or incomplete) report and covered it thoroughly. Ms Barrette’s policy doesn’t even cover hospitalization! Her policy is only slightly better than being uncovered. We find it very intriguing and disappointing CBS News with its scope of resources and supposed professionalism did not big deeper. Reporting as Crawford reported certainly garners more potential viewership ratings, but such reporting does a serious disservice to dissemination of information. Some of us can remember a time when information dissemination was the major focus of network and Cable news.
Lets zero-in on this one a bit more.
Of course, an MSNBC producer and on on-air host exposed the failings of the story. Well, not so! The digging came from none other than Fox New’s Greta Van Sustren.
Check it out….
Here’s YouTube version of the Fox News’ On the Record segment.
Greta teed up the interview using the same setup as Crawford’s piece, that Barrette is “finding out she will have to pay 10 times as much for health insurance” because “she is losing her current plan to Obamacare.”
“I have a copy of your Florida Blue insurance and it’s about $54 a month,” Greta continued, “and now I understand that under Obamacare, it’s going to go up, at least they said that the policy they would offer you under Florida Blue, would be $591; is that correct?”
Actually, the plan BCBSFL was only one of many plans Dianne has to choose from, 10 of which are cheaper than that $591, and based on her income, she’d only pay around $209 a month, but Greta did cut right to the chase about the quality of her old plan.
“Your $54 a month policy is a pretty, you know, bare bones policy, “Greta said. “Why do you want to keep that one, except for the price? Maybe you can get something better with a subsidy?”
Ms. Barrette goes on to say that this ‘insurance’ is perfect for what she needs: a doctor visit copay and prescription copay, and maybe some outpatient services. It turns out that she actually had that reversed and the insurance company paid a $50 ‘copay’ towards a doctor visit, and $15 for prescriptions, and she herself was responsible for all the rest of the costs. The interviewee acknowledged no hospital stays were covered in response to Greta’s question.
According to The Daily Kos Ms. Barettee was scheduled for subsequent Fox News interviews.
We at the TPI are also frustrated with problems associated with the most important legislation from the Obama Administration. There are surmountable problems with the website. Apparently, there are also issues on the back-end of the process with insurance company administration .
In fairness, we are reading reports the preponderance of problems manifest in states in which Republican governors refused to develop ACA exchanges. Exchanges developed by contracted services, yet at a lower development requirement scale than national coverage.
CBS could have and should have probed much deeper into Ms Barette’s perceived predicament. When we find evidence of “low affirmation”, “no information” and misleading information (as is often the case with Fox News) fueled by agenda driven news coverage, there is little room for empathy for either party. Our concern with political and media subterfuge is comparable to a Blood Hound on the trail of an escape prisoner. Fox News and Sean Hannity’s recent charade with his game show like panel spewing obvious misleading information, seems to have become a tip of an iceberg of “kill the ACA” strategy. It was not surprising Neil Cavuto would join the “shark feast” with additional misleading guests (within the week). After being burned by Hannity’s subterfuge, is it possible Fox News management sought an “easy pickings” case of incompetence, rush to broadcast, surface journalism from CBS and MS Barrette?
We expect focused political and social leans from MSNBC, CNN and Fox News. When ‘mainstream” media fails to perform at the level of journalism interns, there-in lies a true tragedy. How many on Jan Crawford’s viewers will seek information about differences in Ms Barette’s plan and the provisions of the ACA? How many of those people will seek opportunity to understand that Ms. Barette may be eligible for ACA subsides.
We cannot allow millionaires in media to influence the ultimate success of live-saving and life preserving legislation like the ACA.
Rash of Lazy, Sensational Reporting is Freaking People Out About Obamacare (via Moyers & Company)
Rash of Lazy, Sensational Reporting is Freaking People Out About Obamacare (via Moyers & Company)
The Pardu's Scroll 