Media Trumpet Flawed ObamaCare Cost Estimates, Bozell Sets Record Straight on Fox
Editor's Note: The initial post included an incorrect video embed. The correct video has now been inserted. We apologize for the error.
While mainstream media outlets repeatedly fail to question flawed health care cost estimates, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell exposed the biased coverage on the January 21 "Fox & Friends."
"This proves why they're not the mainstream media," asserted Bozell, referring to journalists such as ABC's George Stephanopoulos, who claimed that since the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is "the only game in town," that makes them the "referees" on all budgetary matters. "If they were the mainstream media they would be reporting the story accurately."
The founder and president of the Media Research Center revealed what Stephanopoulos and other liberal journalists ignored: "All the CBO can do is crunch the numbers they're given. If the numbers they're given are faulty, then the report is going to be faulty. And guess what? When you look at the numbers that were given, they are a joke."
[Video embedded after the page break.]
Bozell also noted that Doug Holtz-Eakin, former CBO director, referred to his own agency as "garbage in, garbage out."
Julia Seymour, assistant editor of the Business & Media Institute, chronicled the extent to which the mainstream media exalted the CBO scores to support ObamaCare.
--Alex Fitzsimmons is a News Analysis intern at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
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Comments
Issa must make his first
Submitted by Barack_must_go..... on Sat, 01/22/2011 - 3:25pm.
Issa must make his first order of business hauling the CBO's supposedly non - partisan hacks before the House and force them to speak the truth to the American people. This time on C - span instead of being summoned to the White House by the Ass Clown, to incorporate the secret ingredients including lies and glaring discrepancies hidden in the sausage.
If by deposing these individuals armed with the true facts of the conspiracy between the two democrat leaders and the Ass Clown's deliberate lying directly to the American people regarding every aspect of ObamaCare's crippling effect on every aspect of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in America, the repeal in Congress or nulification at the Supreme Court will be a forgone reality, rather than a job, family, future killing all consuming cancer on American society.
Barack_Must_Go.....
CBO Nonsense
Submitted by Bourbeau on Sat, 01/22/2011 - 5:09pm.
This should be very easy to fix. The CBO should be required to produce two reports (1) based on the specific numbers and assumptions they are given, no matter how lame, then (2) a no nonsene report that highlights the questionable assumptions: questionable cost savings; bogus inflation numbers; unmatch expenses vs. revenues; and pie in the sky assumptions. This is a disservice to our country when a goverment agency is utilized in this manner and pretends they have no other option. When you think about why programs like the Medicare and Social Security are screwed up; think about what kinds of estimates we were given back then.
Why even have a CBO?
Submitted by gopcongress on Sat, 01/22/2011 - 5:22pm.
Seriously, a CBO is not politically necessary in either scenario. In a rational, real-world business climate setup, the agency would be nothing more than number crunchers, not worthy of political oversight (other than the accuracy of their calculations). However, they alone cannot determine which numbers are "faulty," as they are based upon numbers given to them by outside sources.
In short, the CBO is not about policy BEFORE the fact, but about the mechanics of actually producing solid answers from solid input. The answer is a bit more nuanced, but the short, bottom line answer is that the CBO can NOT be politicized; if it IS, then it, by definition, is not effective.
"The news and truth are not the same thing." -Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER
Playing the games
Submitted by JJ OKC on Sat, 01/22/2011 - 6:13pm.
The one thing they need to do is not use anything in the future that is not included in the bill. by that i mean any etimated savings or cuts that would have to be debated and/or passed. use as close to real numbers as possible.
Mt undergrad degree in in business and if we did our books the way congress does now we go to jail.
Speaking of trumpets.By a
Submitted by Barack_must_go..... on Sat, 01/22/2011 - 7:21pm.
Speaking of trumpets,when asked by reporters,the liberal media personally prefer the Skin Flute to the Trumpet by a whopping 9 to 1 majority.
Barack_Must_Go.....
Don't change the CBO
Submitted by pbthinker on Sat, 01/22/2011 - 11:40pm.
The job of the CBO isn't to sell a bill, the job is to score a bill, based of the figures they are given. If everything is done correctly, the CBO shouldn't comment, unless their figures are changed. When they say, garbage in=garbage out, they're serious. My understanding of the CBO is they aren't allowed to dispute the assumptions, only score them.
I believe that anyone who's followed the CBO knows this, even the LSM. The fact that the Democrats have so misused the process, should have been reported by the LSM, but they are still in the pocket of the Democrats and refuse to report the truth. Stephanopolis knows full well that the CBO isn't the end, when it comes to costs of bills, the legislation is the end. If you say you're going to pass a bill with $500 billion in cuts to Medicare, and you don't do it, CBO's numbers aren't going to be right. If you give them that number, with no intention of actually doing it, you're gaming the system and a real press corps would be willing to expose that.
Alas, if we only had a free press in this country, rather than one that's governed by the Democrats, we'd be so much better off.
As I see it, part of the problems is the data that is not vetted
Submitted by hbnolikeee on Sun, 01/23/2011 - 12:15am.
That along with the various formulas and projects need to be reviewed and made to reflect the real world, not some political Voodoo Economics.