Time for media to clarify the health care debate | Media Matters for America
How should news organizations cover health care reform?
Simple: Cover health care reform.
All those polls showing that people hold contradictory views and false — or at least highly questionable — beliefs about health care and efforts to reform it are a pretty good indication of what reporters should be doing: Reporting the truth, and doing it often. Giving people the facts about health care and about proposals to reform it.
When you see people yelling, “Keep your government hands off my Medicare,” that’s a pretty good indication that the public could use some solid facts. How many people do you think know that health care reform with a strong public option would cost taxpayers less than a plan without such an option? I would bet that a distressingly large number of members of Congress don’t know that — and that very, very few voters do.
