On September 25, "The View's" Sherri Shepherd asked Michael Moore, "How do you feel about Obama's health care plan?"
Moore responded, "Aw, geez. I feel so bad for this guy. I mean - I - ya know, he's out there all alone; nobody's got his back. The other side they're out there angry, organized."
Nobody's got his back? Really? Let's take a look at the numbers.
In August, the Business & Media Institute examined 224 stories about health care on the three broadcast networks' morning and evening shows that aired between Jan. 20, the date of Obama's inauguration, and June 24, the night of ABC's prime time town hall special on health care.
The networks favored proponents to critics by a margin of more than 2-to-1 (243 to 104).
Each network had its own way of spinning the debate for Obama. On ABC, medical editor and longtime universal care proponent Tim Johnson blatantly cheered for big-government solutions. ABC also aired a primetime special giving Obama time to promote his health care agenda without debate. CBS, particularly the "Early Show," brought on administration officials to promote for government-run health care, but often didn't supply an opposing view.
Here are some additional findings:
Networks Barely Discuss Cost Complaint: The No. 1 criticism of ObamaCare has been its price tag. The Congressional Budget Office estimates one proposed health care bill would cost $1.6 trillion (while still leaving roughly 36 million people uninsured according to the Washington Times). Yet, only 20 network stories (9 percent) referenced estimates even close to that number.
Total Number of Uninsured Exaggerated: On April 29, Robin Roberts told "Good Morning America" viewers that "50 million Americans" were uninsured. Her claim was wrong by nearly 14 million people. Network mentions of the total number of uninsured were wrong by a margin of 4-to-1 (80 percent). Only NBC "Nightly News" and ABC "World News" never got it wrong - by not citing the number of uninsured at all.
Networks Don't Compare ‘Medicare-like' Public Option to Medicare's Track Record: Reporters admitted the public option insurance Obama wants would be "similar to Medicare" in just 11 of the stories (5 percent). But none of those stories pointed out that Medicare is heading toward an "explosive fiscal situation," according to the CBO, or that the program is a big reason for rising health care costs.
