Right Wing News Media shows its bias, falsely declaring it struck down
The Affordable Care Act was upheld, in its entirety, by a 5-4 Supreme Court decision today. The deciding vote belonged to Chief Justice John Roberts, who by all accounts was expected to vote down the Act, but instead, in an unexpected move worthy of Severus Snape, sided with the “liberal” wing of the SCOTUS justices, leading to a flurry of right-wing bloggers howling for his impeachment. The mandate, one of the most hotly contested portions of the Bill, was declared by the court to be constitutional as a tax increase. Even before the verdict was announced however, Fox News and CNN were reporting that the Court had struck down the mandate. Recorded footage can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiXV_1X-PRo
CNN issued this statement in response to its error:
“In his opinion, Chief Justice Roberts initially said that the individual mandate was not a valid exercise of Congressional power under the Commerce Clause. CNN reported that fact, but then wrongly reported that therefore the court struck down the mandate as unconstitutional. However, that was not the whole of the Court’s ruling. CNN regrets that it didn’t wait to report out the full and complete opinion regarding the mandate. We made a correction within a few minutes and apologize for the error.”
FOX has not commented on the incident.
Interestingly enough, it seems that both FOX and CNN reported the misinformation at the same time and appeared to have the same excuses as they back-pedaled from the gaffe. Their blunders did not go unnoticed – Twitter feeds exploded with comments such as:
And this after a profuse apology by CNN reporter Lisa Desjardins:
The sarcasm got so thick in fact, that AP Press Editor David Scott sent a memo to all AP journalists, urging them to stop cracking jokes at CNN and FOX’s expense:
From: Scott, David T.
Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2012 9:51 AM
To: News – Central Editorial Staff
Subject: Twitter/Health Care
Importance: High
All,
Please, immediately, stop taunting on social networks about CNN and others’ SCOTUS ruling
mistake and the AP getting it right.
That’s not the impression we want to reflect as an organization. Let our reporting take the lead.
Best,
David
—–
David Scott
Region Editor/Central U.S.
The Associated Press
The question is, in this digital age of instant communication, how could a such a Dewey-Truman “mistake” be made? The answer is simple – the networks report what they are TOLD to report, and whoever holds the leash, makes the news.
Usually.
Does the CPUSA & the OCP support the concept of health care funded from taxation & free at the point of use - along the lines of the UK`s National Health Service?
ReplyDeleteUltimately, the general position is (and I obviously cannot speak officially on the matter, but simply draw from the positions of the party and Marxist-Leninist thought) - is that healthcare is an absolute right to every citizen. A progressive taxation system is part of our platform toward the road to Socialism, with the view of the taxes being used to provide for the benefit of the working class. So yes, that is certainly a step in the right direction. Ultimately, the goal is of course for the workers to have full control of their destinies, and the abolition of classes by the triumph of the working class. At that point, the system of taxation etc would be dramatically different, and all people would have medical care without the idea of cost even being factored into the picture. You can see an example of this in Cuba, where the average lifespan of adult males is a full 10 years longer than in the US, and the infant mortality rate is dramatically less as well. This is due to preventative care for all citizens, and a completely different philosophy in medicine from being one of cost/benefit analysis to one of genuinely caring for the patient and offering a holistic treatment that promotes wellness from birth through old age.
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