HuffPo Columnist: Media Didn't Do Enough to Shill for Health Care

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A lefty columnist for the Huffington Post believes that the media's coverage of the health care debate was sorely lacking. NewsBusters wholeheartedly agrees. Yes, we agree with the Huffington Post.

You see, we were under the impression that columnist Allison Kilkenny was less than honest after she used the staged homicide of a census worker to claim that conservatives were fomenting violence. In fact, the death was ruled a suicide.

But today Kilkenny echoed NB's complaints when she wrote of the "shoddy journalism" and "low-quality gutter-dredging techniques" that "successfully brainwashed millions of readers and viewers." Yes, the public really was let down by those substandard journalists at…wait a minute. The Wall Street Journal? Fox News? She must have meant ABC, NBC, and CBS, right?

No, apparently Kilkenny actually does believe that coverage of the health care debate was too generous to conservative objections.

She seems to believe that one cable network and one newspaper (even if they are the most widely consumed in their particular markets) -- along with Investors Business Daily, which has a circulation of less than 200,000 -- could successfully counter the consistent pro-ObamaCare shilling from the three broadcast networks, not to mention the cheerleaders at the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Fox's cable news competition.

Kilkenny's complaint seems to be that all media did not skew their coverage to the left, and those that did simply didn't skew it enough. Who did cover the debate well? Why, lefty blogs and nonprofits, of course!

Kaiser Family Foundation, New England Journal, FDL, Digby, and other bloggers were great throughout the reform process. They provided important, insightful coverage and analyses, but bloggers have to acknowledge that they are still a fraction of a fraction of the populace. Misinformation and shoddy coverage still dominate the mainstream media. Unfortunately, these great moments of true muckraking journalism were few and far between. Though Pollack's VIP list worked diligently for many months, their readership is minuscule when compared to the audience of hate radio and the major networks.

Wait, major networks? Didn't we just cover that? Major networks were completely in the tank for so-called reform, whether it was Katie Couric claiming it was "so unfair and so undemocratic" that people die because they don't have health insurance, or Brian Williams parroting the "do it for Teddy" meme after the late senator's death.

And with roughly 23 million Americans tuning in to just the evening news broadcasts on the main three networks, even "hate radio" -- which, if I'm up on my lefty lingo, refers to Rush Limbaugh and other talk radio stars -- doesn't have a reach like that.

It's become apparent that nothing but total liberal domination of the news media will satiate Kilkenny and her ilk. When she says "quality" news, read news with a liberal bent. Dissent cannot be tolerated, and investigation can only take place after Democrats have carried the day.