Jenna Wolfe's introduction of her guest on health-care on this morning's Today would surely have led viewers to believe he was an objective, apolitical voice. What Wolfe didn't tell viewers is that Andrew Rubin is a HuffPo blogger and such an avid ObamaCare advocate that he urged his readers to call Congress to lobby for it. Here was Wolfe's intro:
"The politics surrounding the health-care bill has dominated the headlines. But with the House vote just hours away, what's really in this bill and how will it affect you? Andrew Rubin is the host of HealthCare Connect on Sirius XM Radio. Andrew, good morning. There's so much involved here; let's try to break this down as to how it affects everyone."
I began to doubt Rubin's objectivity when he explained the bill's effect on various demographic groups by in in every case claiming that ObamaCare would be good in the short run and even better in the long run. I kept waiting for some balance: a discussion for example, of the massive taxes ObamaCare imposes, or the loss of freedom that the individual mandate represents. But never a discouraging word was heard. ObamaCare: all gain, no pain!
View video here.
Which made me wonder: who is Andrew Rubin? I Googled . . .
Turns out that in addition to being a Sirius host and hospital administrator, Rubin is a regular blogger at HuffPo. So avid an advocate of ObamaCare is he that he implored his readers to call Congress to lobby for it! Blog excerpt [emphasis added]:
"To do nothing is a national disgrace and for those who think government should stay out of health care, if we do not fix this now, costs will continue to rise, more people will go without health care, and we will spend even more than 17 percent of GDP we do now. It is up to us. If you are reading this blog, call Congress. Tell them we have to do something."
But of course Today never told us that. No, Rubin was just an apolitical guy explaining the facts. He ended with a typical liberal insult of his fellow Americans: we'll like ObamaCare when we emerge from our ignorance and understand the wonders that are in it:
ANDREW RUBIN: I think the news is going to start shifting away from the politics hopefully later on today and we'll start talking about what's in the bill and as soon as the American people start understanding it, it will become a lot clearer.
Andrew, if ObamaCare passes today, the politics will have only just begun. Meanwhile, Today has a duty to "become a lot clearer" about their guests' hidden agendas.