Why Is It That So Many Reporters Seem to Know So Little about Obamacare?

[n2doc]

“Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn’t mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.”

~ Edward R. Murrow

Long before the advent of the Internet, Edward R. Murrow, the newsman who stood up and exposed the lies spread by Senator Joe McCarthy in the early 1950s, understood that while “the speed of communication is wondrous to behold, it is also true that speed can multiply the distribution of information that we know to be untrue.”

Murrow was right. Today, as traffic on the information highway has picked up speed, it often seems that, the Information Age that we celebrated in the 1990s has become an Age of Misinformation .

Today, not only CBS, the network that brought us Murrow, but the media as a whole seems to have forgotten his plea to his fellow journalists: “Just once in a while, let us exalt the importance of ideas and information.”

The Media and Obamacare
When it comes to covering the Affordable Care Act (ACA), not only televison networks but our major newspapers have fallen far short of Murrow’s fearless standards. Instead of ideas and information, the mainstream media serves up opinions and anecdotes.

Tall tales about “Obamacare’s victims” have become standard fare. In recent months I have deconstructed two faux fables: one that appeared in the Ft. Worth -Star Telegram,(URL), another that aired on CBS stations nationwide.

- See more at: http://www.healthbeatblog.com/2014/03/why-is-it-that-so-many-reporters-seem-to-know-so-little-about-obamacare-part-1/

[orpupilofnature57]

1. Selective Curiosity ?

[unblock]

2. the modern "journalist" is a scribe and sycophant

to the extent they are judged, it is on the basis of access, vaguely accurate quoting, and entertainment value.

knowledge is not considered particularly useful, and to the extent it interferes with entertainment value, may even be a liability.

it is a sad state of affairs.

[Arkansas Granny]

11. I think you nailed it with "entertainment value".

[TexasProgresive]

3. A better question:

Why do so many reporters know so little about anything. Well they might know what tie to wear or the latest hairstyle.

[hobbit709]

4. +1000

[Triana]

6. That's just it. Most are naught but megaphones for corprat propaganda & distraction. n/t

[tridim]

5. Because their boss is a 1%'er.

And 1%'ers don't tell the truth about anything.

[Glitterati]

7. 2 simple reasons

1) they are NOT journalists. They are pretty boys and girls put in front of a camera.

2) They are PAID not to know, or at least pretend so.

[pnwmom]

8. Why do so many people on DU -- otherwise well informed people -- know so little?

We had a prominent poster recently get hundreds of recs for an anti-Obamacare OP. He didn't seem to understand that drug formularies weren't an invention of the ACA, but have been in use for decades in single-payer systems; and he passed along false information a friend had told him, that insurers outside of the exchanges can still deny people for preexisting conditions.

Another active DUer insisted that under the ACA people with health conditions have to pay more for their premiums than healthy people-- which is also untrue. Whether on or off the exchanges, only two factors affect premiums (aside from subsidies based on income, which can only be obtained on the exchanges): age and smoking status.

[Glitterati]

12. Why do you keep repeating

lies and misinformation when you've been corrected many times?

Yeah, it's a clear habit.

[JaneyVee]

13. which lies?

[pnwmom]

18. Show me one. n/t

[Vattel]

9. great article. thx

[earthside]

10. Three reasons ...

1. Their boss is a 1 per center.
2. Most of them are at least 10 per centers.
3. The Obama administration, the ACA administration and the Democrats have done a terrible job of promoting the positives of the ACA.

[seabeckind]

14. Evolution -- artificial selection

The true journalist produces a product that is not acceptable to the rightward movement in the country. So he/she is relegated to some inconspicuous spot where the dissenting word is never heard.

Just like that piece I saw on the Newsroom of the guy following the pres candidate. He didn't report the "news" as he was told so he was cast out.

Starts early. If he/she manages to get hired, it won't be for long.

Our political candidates follow the same paradigm.

[Enthusiast]

15. The media is part of the misinformation campaign.

[jsr]

16. These 6 Corporations Control 90% Of The Media In America

[tblue37]

17. That's a feature of M$M "reporting," not a bug. nt

[TheKentuckian]

19. Is there a subject that they are generally knowledgeable about in any way?

Their mission is propaganda and distraction not informing the public.

They represent the forces of ignorance and lies not truth and knowledge.

[treestar]

20. Reporters should be curious to dig up facts

Today's reporters aren't. They just don't look for facts, just for other people's opinions.

[Lurks Often]

21. Why Is It That So Many Reporters Seem to Know So Little About Anything?

It has gotten to the point that most of them spend about 5 minutes doing an Internet search and then think they know enough to write their story.

Welcome to the 24/7 news cycle and 60 second sound bites, where ratings are more important then ethics.