Saturday, March 10, 2012

Are Grits or Healthcare More Important?

Watch MSNBC and you can see clip after clip of Mitt Romney talking about grits.   Yes, Mr. Romney is not a comfortable campaigner.   But when he was Governor of Massachusetts, he was directly involved in one of the key issues facing the country and most familes:  healthcare.    What's more important?

Doing thoughtful reporting on healthcare takes time, dedicated research and analysis.   It's not possible to report on a crucial issue by just sitting on set yacking about it.

T. R. Reid points out in his book The Healing of America:  A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care, when you examine healthcare around the world, there are four basic  systems:  the Bismark model, the Out-of-Pocket Model, the Beveridge Model, and the National Health Insurance Model.   Have you seen in-depth reporting on those on CBS, ABC, NBC or Fox? 

For broadcast television, if you want to watch thoughtful reporting on healthcare you have to watch PBS, particularly Frontline.

PBS gives us reporting.   MSNBC gives us grits.

When journalism fails, bad things happen.    Watch this Frontline piece to see an example of journalism doing its job. 
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