Friday, September 20, 2013

Obamacare - Can't Cure Sick Network Coverage

What is Obamacare?   What are its provisions?   How does it change healthcare in America?   Since so many yellers and screamers seem to object to it, what are the specific objections?   Do those objections have anything to do with facts and reality?  On a network news program, it's easy to find a sound bite from a politician criticizing Obamacare or threatening to defund Obamacare. What's virtually impossible to find (and I'm asking for help here), is to find NBC, CBS, ABC or FOX doing any substantive reporting on Obamacare.  (If you know of a solid piece of substantive in depth reporting by the networks, please send the URL or the date and program.)

Healthcare is a huge issue.   Why aren't the networks examining it?   Why are they so superficial?
If we practiced healthcare the way the networks do their health reporting, a man with multiple gunshot wounds bleeding all over the floor would be carried into the emergency room and be given a band aide for the cut on his finger.

It's a few years old, but it's still worth watching.  Frontline did a thoughtful examination of healthcare systems around the world, the kind of reporting every network should be doing.   A caution here for FOX news producers; this program shows a reporter asking worthwhile questions and reporting facts.   There's no yelling and screaming here.   There is worthwhile information that helps the viewer understand healthcare from a global perspective.   Watch, Sick Around the World.

What really makes one sick is the lack of in depth reporting on the issue of healthcare by the American television networks.

When journalism fails, bad things happen.

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