Fox News makes me cringe

Fox News (I'm sorry but saying that always makes me cringe) has a recent piece of propaganda that must have been hot off the Republican National Committee To-Do List press. In its Media Matters for America segment (http://mediamatters.org/items/200903300029) Betsy McCaughey (ex-lieutenant governor of New York) and Martha MacCallum speak on the topic of Natasha Richardson's recent death.

The Republicans are trying to derail Obama's health care reform. They, being bought and paid for shills of the insurance lobby, hope to convince Americans (remember Harry and Louise???) that single-payer health care is the devil's plaything.

Trying to pin the blame of the gifted actresses' death onto the Canadian system, McCaughey invokes the "cost-benefit" analysis innuendo. As if Canadian doctors carry around calculators and clipboards along with their stethoscopes. As one of the commenters on the site remarks,

"I find this "report" appalling on so many levels. Being Canadian and having worked in the health care industry for 11 years, I have NEVER heard of ANYONE being denied all tests and/or procedures available for treatment. That is simply not factual. As is true in the U.S. I assume, anyone can refuse treatment which clearly seems to be the case in this particular incident. Nobody can be forced to seek treatment no matter the situation. Unfortunately, with head injuries time is of the essence. Hindsight is always 20/20, and there are a great deal of "ifs" being bandied about here. Blaming the Canadian Health Care system is not even remotely appropriate."

Another remarks that he's never known one instance of anyone being denied care because of a "cost-benefit" analysis.

Isn't it obvious what is going on here? A supposed news organization makes hints that America might be making the same "mistake" that the Canadians made years ago when they set up standards for their health care (Canada doesn't have a single-payer system so much as a standard that the provinces must meet or exceed). Fox then fills the report with "might's" and "maybe's" instead of doing what a real news organization is supposed to do: find the facts. Was a CT scan done? Was it not done because of some probably fictional cost-benefit analysis?

Don't know? Well, find out! You're a news organization! Oh, but what you really are is a media arm of the Republican National Committee. Remember the Obama birth certificate fiasco? Why does anyone take Fox seriously???

And I hate to go into ad hominem attack mode, but why is it they couldn't come up with someone with a little more political heft than Betsy McCaughey? Her career was ruined a long time ago with her bizarre behavior in New York. Could it be that no one with any reputation wanted to be anywhere near this obvious example of mis-information?


 

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