Media Hail Pro-ObamaCare 'Bipartisanship,' Ignore Frist's, Daschle's Blatant Conflicts of Interest
"Bipartisanship" is one of those buzzwords that proponents of a policy will invoke whenever possible. But a rush to demonstrate that the policy appeals across party lines can often obscure partisans' real motives in endorsing it.
Since former Senate Majority Leaders Bill Frist and Tom Daschle teamed up to endorse ObamaCare this week, plenty of media outlets have touted the "bipartisan" backing of the law.
Daschle is of course a Democrat so his support isn't as newsy as Frist's. But when a credentialed Republican, a former Senate GOP leader comes out in favor of a piece of landmark liberal legislation, the keen observer is a bit suspicious. Why the ideological shift? In Frist's case - and this fact has amazingly gone unmentioned in reports by MSNBC, NPR, and Politico - it seems to be due to his significant financial stake in ObamaCare's preservation.
As reported by Washington Examiner columnist Tim Carney last year (who also spotted the media omissions):
Frist is a partner in a private investment firm that bets on health care companies -- and on regulation.... So Frist gets rich by helping pick the health care companies that will get rich. Now he's backing Obamacare -- and winning praise for it.
Carney followed up with a column on Frist's vested interest in the health care debate on Wednesday. He wrote:
Look at some of the language on [Frist employer] Cressey & Co's webpage. "The Cressey & Company strategy applies unique insights and experience to produce extraordinary results" [emphasis added]. What "unique insights" do you think Frist provides? Another page on the site gives us a hint: "With deep expertise in the healthcare reimbursement and regulatory environments, the Cressey & Company team has invested in almost every for-profit niche of healthcare."
Daschle, for his part, is a lobbying "consultant" for a number of clients with skin in the health care game.
Yet somehow, both Daschle's and Frist's clear conflicts of interest - indeed, even their employers - escaped mention in reports from MSNBC, NPR, and Politico. Clearly the mainstream press is a sucker for "bipartisanship" - when it's supporting a law popular in liberal circles, anyway.
But for journalists who love to "follow the money," they're awfully silent on these two partisans' financial interests in seeing ObamaCare preserved.
- Lachlan Markay's blog
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Comments
Whaddya mean
Submitted by KornKing on Thu, 01/20/2011 - 6:46pm.
3 demos voted to overturn the mess, isn't that bi-partisan opposition?
I've been to Greece. It is a
Submitted by jdhawk on Thu, 01/20/2011 - 7:12pm.
I've been to Greece. It is a beautiful part of the world. It has a lot in common with the United States. It is broke, also.
It has socialized medicine like the liberals here have fashioned for us. And, one of the first things that the ECB, equivalent to the Federal Reserve, did when the Greeks were about to default on their loans was to propose that they, the Greeks, privatize their health care system. That would right their 100% deficit to tax receipts the fastest.
They didn't and every day they come closer and closer to the brink of bankruptcy or as it applies to a country, default. The result could very well be the end of a common Euro currency and the amalgam that makes up the Euro zone at present.
Already, the healthy of the European countries, Germany, has hinted that if push comes to shove, they will pull out of of the alliance.
Congressman Ryan has looked into the cost of the present legislation. He reasons that it will actually cost us 700 billion plus dollars over 10 years.
We are starting on the third year of trillion dollar plus deficits with no end in sight. The rating agencies are threathening to lower our credit rating as a country. With trillions of dollars in debt, the cost of the debt will skyrocket if that happens. Just inflation alone that is sure to come as we have flooded the planet with out dollars will raise the cost of that debt to prohibitive levels.
So to hell with bipartisanship no matter who the whores are that still think it is a good idea. Repeal duhbamacare.
MSM Betrays the Public Trust Again
Submitted by Boil It Down on Thu, 01/20/2011 - 9:14pm.
After MSNBC, Politico and NPR deliver their talking points, any further investigation into motives is unnecessary. Never mind that they violate the basic tenets of actual journalism. Whatever Fisher Price school of journalism they graduated from clearly didn't impress them with those tenets.
The fact that any truly interested citizen can dig into the web to discover what they failed to report doesn't even embarrass them. That makes them lazy propagandists, not journalists.
GOP denounce Frist
Submitted by p-squared on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 12:15am.
The new chairman of the GOP and every GOP leader needs to immediately denounce Frist in no uncertain terms, using the information behind his support of Obamacare as their reason. He has clearly placed his own selfish interests ahead of the country at large, and allowing him to continue claiming to be a Republican is a stain on all Republicans. His former position as Senate Majority Leader lends validity to the "bipartisan" nature of this health care nightmare called Obamacare, and he should darn well know better - but he is blinded by greed.
Well, now we know that
Submitted by Chris Norman on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 12:33am.
Well, now we know that Frist's political philosophy was for sale. He also sold any respect he may have once had. Frist's sell out makes one doubt the political philosophical depth of a lot of these GOP politicians. No wonder a lot of them don't represent conservative positions very well in debates on political talk shows - they don't really understand their "political philosophy of convenience".
Ahhhhhhhh
Submitted by donabernathy on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 1:41am.
the friends and family program....... while the Mafia Families may go to war every 5 or 10 years... they will always protect the system.
roflmao