Monday night, Nicholas Fondacaro at NewsBusters noted that NBC Nightly News failed to cover steep price increases averaging 25 percent being imposed next year in ObamaCare plans purchased through the program's national exchange.
One might have expected the normally left-leaning Morning Joe show on MSNBC to follow suit. Nope. Co-host Willie Geist noted that the premium hikes and shrinking choice that will be seen in 2017 were "all predicted by conservatives, while Joe Scarborough chimed in further: "Everything conservatives predicted coming true with Obamacare." As one might expect, liberal Mika Brzezinski quickly squelched discussion of the grim news by steering the conversation back to the Clinton-Trump horse race.
The segment below begins after the panel discussed how difficult Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's path to victory is:
Transcript:
WILLIE GEIST: Now he does have an issue he can use if he's smart, which is this Obamacare story about premiums going up 25 percent in certain plans, 22 percent in other plans, and choice shrinking — all things predicted by conservatives.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Everything conservatives predicted coming true with Obamacare.
GEIST: If he uses those and pushes that button in swing states, maybe that impacts the race.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: So that's a couple of headlines this morning. But let's look at a couple of those swing-state polls.
Yes, Mika, by all means, let's look at the polls and avoid substance. I thought the press believed that journalists weren't doing a good job if all they cared about was the "horse race"?
Brzezinski's "let's see the polls" Hillary-supporting apparatchik maneuver enabled the panel to avoid talking about at least the following items Fondacaro noted last night, namely:
... how the federal government again missed enrollment projections and how insurers were literally losing billions of dollars because of the program ... (and) the push by Congressional Democrats to add the dreaded public option to the failing program.
Well, at least the MSNBC program mentioned it. But with its hours of available time, it easily could have and should stayed on topic for a while longer. There's no shortage of "she's winning, he's losing" statements emanating from seemingly every broadcast outlet on the planet, despite three reputable polls showing that the national race is tight and documented suspect practices employed in other polling.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
