Health Care

Veteran journalist Carl Bernstein unleashed a tirade against House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and “his Republicans” on Wednesday’s Morning Joe. After co-host Mika Brzezinski read a passage from Thomas Friedman’s scathing indictment of Tea Party Republicans in The New York Times, Bernstein promised, “I’ll go farther than Friedman.” He certainly did: “Eric Cantor and his Republican Party are the…

For two straight days, Nancy Cordes strongly hinted on CBS This Morning that House Republicans were to blame for the ongoing government shutdown. On Tuesday, Cordes hounded GOP Congressman Robert Pittenger: "All the polls show that a majority of Americans don't want to see the government shut down over ObamaCare. How can you say the American people is on your side?" The correspondent tossed a…

I’m not sure which polls late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel is citing in his prefatory remarks, which include the claim that “Americans don’t like Obamacare but love what’s in it.” Nevertheless, his man-on-the-street interviews paint a sobering picture of Americans’ ignorance when it comes to the president’s signature health care reform law — the bone of contention that led to the current partial…

On Tuesday, Julia Ioffe, senior editor for the liberal New Republic publication, all but suggested that President Obama needed to use military force against Tea Party conservatives in Congress. Ioffe likened the current federal government shutdown to the 1993 constitutional crisis in Russia, where then-President Boris Yeltsin ultimately ended the impasse by dissolving the parliament, and had…

Move over, Lord Voldemort.  Ted Cruz has taken your place as the man so evil he must not be named .  .  . Today's Morning Joe featured a strange trope in which Cruz was being unmistakably referred to by various members of the panel, but, at least in the first hour, never mentioned by name.  Instead, Joe Scarborough, Mike Barnicle and Willie Geist variously alluded to Cruz as "one Republican…

If Obamacare is as glorious and transformative as its most vocal proponents claim, why do they skirt the truth about it? The state-run health exchanges mandated by the legislation take effect today -- and coinciding with their appearance are laughable claims about the law from its chief apologists in media. (Audio clips after the jump)

Monday night’s edition of ABC World News was a double dose of advocacy as Diane Sawyer and her team essentially served as a mouthpiece for President Obama’s position on the government shutdown and his health care law. Sawyer led the broadcast, of course, with the government shutdown, which was then only a few hours away. She stated President Obama’s perspective on the matter: “The president…

Alex Rogers and Zeke Miller of Time magazine dutifully hacked out a 16-paragraph item on President Obama's complaint this afternoon that Republicans were the cause of the government shutdown. It was your typical, garden variety bias-by-stenography. Only at the very end of their article did Rogers and Miller mention that the Democratic National Committee is having a fundraising field day off…

CNN anchor Don Lemon was not hesitant in placing his blame for the government shutdown at the feet of Republicans. On Tuesday's Tom Joyner Morning Show, Lemon blamed Republicans but insisted he is not partisan. "I'm so mad this morning," he ranted, and added it was partly due to "the false narrative that both sides caused this shutdown. That's not true. It was caused by Republicans, mainly…

On Tuesday's New Day, CNN's Chris Cuomo blamed Republicans for "hurting families" with the government shutdown and asked Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) if he would admit to wrongdoing. "[Y]ou did shut down the government. It is hurting families, many of whom live on the margins and you know that," Cuomo slammed Issa. "And I want to ask you if you think that that was wrong." Issa called him out…

Even as Politico and others are urging the public to overlook some of the many flaws in the Obamacare health insurance exchanges which just opened up today, MSNBC anchor Mara Schiavocampo is not playing along with the spin game. Earlier this morning on “MSNBC Live,” Schiavocampo took viewers along with her as she filed a report on her experience trying to sign up for an exchange. It was an…

Michelle Malkin's Twitchy.com has capsulized the Obamacare exchanges' opening day as follows (links are in the original): "HealthCare.gov tried to kick off the Obamacare marketplace this morning … and failed miserably. The website is an error-ridden mess and users are being asked for their patience as the marketplace works out “known issues” with security. But never mind the pesky bugs…

On CNN Tuesday, Politico's Roger Simon slammed the "extreme right-wing" for using "food as a political weapon," for taking the GOP "hostage," and for denying "health care to 11 million people" in favor of a shutdown. "The extreme right-wing of the Republican Party has taken that party hostage, at least in the House of Representatives," Simon ranted. He summarized their current position on…

With the ObamaCare exchanges set to take effect today, and polls showing the President’s health care law as unpopular as ever (a September 25 poll from CBS News/New York Times found 51% “somewhat” or “strongly” disapproved of the law), the Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) news networks have been reluctant to report the multiple fiascos surrounding its implementation: ■ On July 2 and 3, all three…