Dr. Nancy

Well, it looks like a death panel inside MSNBC has mercifully pulled the plug on the "Dr. Nancy" program. TV Newser's Chris Ariens reported the story earlier today:

Breaking: TVNewser has learned MSNBC has canceled "Dr. Nancy" the NoonET health/medical show hosted by Dr. Nancy Snynderman.

The cancellation of "Dr. Nancy" is yet another daytime programming move by MSNBC, which has fallen to 4th and, on some days, 5th place in the daytime ratings. Last week, the network announced it was moving Dylan Ratigan from two hours in the morning (9-11amET) to one hour in the afternoon (4pmET), beginning next month.

MSNBC’s Dr. Nancy Snyderman appeared on Wednesday’s Morning Joe and justified reducing the number of women in their 40s who get mammograms. "No, it is rationing. Let's be clear," she admitted.

Confusing private actions by American citizens and the government, the Dr. Nancy host compared, "But, you ration what food you eat. You ration how much sleep you get. And this is saying we should question about how we spend our health care dollars." Of course, the government doesn’t control how much food and sleep Americans get.

Host Joe Scarborough made the same point, though he didn’t seem so cheery about rationing: "You talk about the death panels. Forget the death panels. This is rationing, saying, 'Okay, we could do this. We could save some lives. It's just not worth the money.'"

After airing what she described as a "hard-hitting" ad by the Center for Reproductive Rights which ominously warned, "Don't let Congress ban abortion coverage millions of women already have," MSNBC's Dr. Nancy Snyderman today lamented to Politico's Jeanne Cummings that with Sen. Ted Kennedy gone, Democrats lack a unifying figure who could defuse an abortion battle that could mar Democratic unity on health care reform.

Snyderman praised the late pro-choice politician as a "man of his church and of his faith" (MP3 audio here):

Well, now the Catholic Church is lobbying hard to get House language into the Senate bill and then hopefully get it passed. Politico's assistant managing editor Jeanne Cummings wrote about this. And she joins me now.

MSNBC's Nancy Snyderman attacked Catholic bishops on Thursday for opposing abortion funding in the health care bill, agreeing with the President of NOW that the IRS should investigate them. The "Dr. Nancy" host also complained, "This is going to be a Pollyannaish statement. The Catholic bishops appearing and having a political voice seems to be a most fundamental violation of church and state."

Terry O’Neill, the President of the National Organization for Women, quickly concurred: "You know, that's the first thing that I said. I don't know where the Internal Revenue Service is, but I hope they're paying attention." Snyderman responded, "Me, too." Watching this segment, a viewer could be confused as to who was the leader of a left-wing feminist group and who was the supposedly neutral cable anchor. (It should be pointed out that NOW is a non-profit group and has a tax exempt component to its organization. Should the IRS go after them?)

Snyderman repeatedly allowed O’Neill’s hyperbolic statements to go unchallenged. She absurdly claimed that the amendment by Democratic Congressman Bart Stupak, which prohibits funding for abortion in the health care bill, "essentially overrules Roe V. Wade." The MSNBC host said nothing. When O’Neill frothed, "It's not acceptable to change health care for America while sending women off into the back alleys to die," Snyderman again stayed silent.

Appearing on the Dr. Nancy program on MSNBC Friday, NBC News terrorism analyst Roger Cressey warned against labeling the mass shooting at Ft. Hood as terrorism, despite the apparent radical views of the shooter: “We’ve heard some family references that he was being criticized for his Muslim faith, that’s all we know right now....It’s still premature to draw the terrorism conclusion.”

Prior to Cressey’s assessment, host Dr. Nancy Snyderman spoke with Dr. Stevan Hobfoll, director of the Traumatic Stress Center at Rush University Medical Center and asked about the mental health of the attacker, Major Nidal Hasan. Hobfoll made no hesitation describing the shooting as a terrorist act: “Strangely enough, terrorism is not in itself an area – an act of mental illness. I think this was a Jihadist act, it’s certainly psychologically abnormal what he did, but that doesn’t mean that he had any psychological disorder, per se.”

Nancy Snyderman—huge fencing fan? Ping-pong aficionado perhaps?  I mean, what could explain the doctor being so down in the dumps over Chicago's loss of the Olympic games?

Here's how a crestfallen Snyderman opened her MSNBC show today: "A profound loss for Chicago . . . a stunning blow to the United States . . . I'm one of those people who is profoundly disappointed.  I can't hide this one."

There's video after the break that should give a hint to the real answer . . . 

Talk about an empathetic doctor, someone who really feels her patient's pain . . .

On her MSNBC show this afternoon, here's how Dr. Nancy Snyderman described her reaction to Rep. Joe Wilson's "you lie!":

"It was a gut punch to me."

Snyderman was kibitzing Pres. Obama's health care speech to Congress with NBC chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd.

Of all the Obama cheerleaders in the MSM, could there possibly be one more devoted than Dr. Nancy? On her MSNBC show today, Snyderman bemoaned to a White House aide that the push for ObamaCare had been "going so well" till it was hijacked by rumors, innuendoes and "lies."

Snyderman was chatting with White House advisor Melody Barnes, who didn't seem to take the possible defeat as hard as did her host . . .

Are you wary of the federal government using taxpayer dollars to advise senior citizens on "end-of-life" issues? If so, you're just "cruel," according to former ABC reporter Linda Douglass, now the communications director for the White House Office of Health Reform.

Douglass appeared on MSNBC's Aug. 12 "Dr. Nancy," with host Nancy Snyderman. Snyderman pointed out that some of the discussion about end-of-life care is just craziness and these "rumors" are difficult to combat (even though there is precedent for governments involved heavily in health care to take such measures, as Michelle Malkin pointed out.)

"I think the criticism about this euthanasia and death panels is just craziness," Snyderman said. "That, in fact, we should be talking about death and dying earlier, but these are rumors that aren't going away."

Who says a little engineering mixed in with your journalism is a bad thing? At least one MSNBC host and Washington Post reporter said it's a journalist's job to focus on "real issues" in the hotly debated issue of health care reform.

This was the topic of discussion in a panel featuring John Rother, executive vice president of Policy and Strategy for AARP, Ceci Connolly of The Washington Post, Tim Phillips of Americans for Prosperity and host Dr. Nancy Snyderman during MSNBC's "Dr. Nancy" Aug. 10.

Rother argued there has been far too much hyperbole on the issue, which he insisted was meant to mislead the public.