Hannity offers plethora of town hall falsehoods to claim Dems are the ones "calling names"
Asserting that "the Democrats" are the ones "yelling here and calling names," Sean Hannity claimed that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called health care town hall protesters "Nazis"; that Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer wrote "that they are un-American"; and that President Obama is "telling the American people to shut up." In fact, none of these claims is true. Read More
UPDATED: Despite Air America "blackout," companies support Beck, Dobbs, and Limbaugh
Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Lou Dobbs have used their radio and television shows to incite hatred and push wild conspiracy theories, leading several of Beck's advertisers to reportedly pull out of his broadcasts. Many advertisers have nonetheless sponsored these hosts' hate speech in recent weeks, including major corporations and organizations that, in 2006, reportedly requested that ABC Radio Networks not air their advertisements during any Air America programs. Read More
CNN's Roberts cites Lewin Group study for Heritage, ignores CBO on public plan enrollment
On August 11, CNN anchor John Roberts reported that "critics of these plans say people will be forced into this public health care plan," but cited only "a study done for the Heritage Foundation by the Lewin Group [that] says 88 million people ... will be forced into the public plan." However, Roberts ignored that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) "estimate[s] ... the number of enrollees in the public plan would be substantially smaller than the Lewin Group's," predicting that only approximately 2 million people would switch from employer coverage to the public plan. Read More
More cut and paste: Fox's Doocy parrots Heritage talking points, claims they came "from a friend"
On August 12, Steve Doocy cited five "really hard" health care questions to ask elected officials at town hall meetings, which he said he received "from one of [his] friends." All of Doocy's questions, however, are virtually identical to the "five questions Americans should be pressing their elected leaders on" posted on the conservative Heritage Foundation's blog. Read More
USA Today falsely claims "estimated cost of a health care overhaul" is $1 trillion
A USA Today article reported that some elderly opponents of health care reform "fear the estimated cost of a health care overhaul, generally pegged for the first 10 years at $1 trillion, would lead to cuts" in Medicare, and then quoted "a former state representative" saying, "It's going to bankrupt this country." In fact, contrary to the article's claim that health care reform would "cost" $1 trillion, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has found that the only complete bill to be given a cost estimate "would result in a net increase in the federal budget deficit of $239 billion over the 2010-2019 period." Read More
Tapper, Hemmer too busy playing gotcha on Obama's AARP comments to report relevant facts
Following President Obama's comments at an August 11 town hall that "AARP would not be endorsing a bill if it was undermining Medicare," ABC News' Jake Tapper and Fox News' Bill Hemmer reported that Obama was incorrect and that the AARP hadn't endorsed any specific bill. However, while the AARP did release a statement saying it hadn't endorsed a bill, it also praised Obama's "insistence that any final reform package will not reduce Medicare benefits," which neither Tapper nor Hemmer reported; moreover, Tapper and Hemmer did not note that the group has previously praised the House tri-committee bill. Read More
Politico twice mischaracterizes Dems' comments to assert they called "protesters" un-American
In an August 7 blog post and an August 10 article, the Politico reported as fact that Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer had called health care town hall protesters "un-American," when, in fact, these Democratic figures were referring to disruptive tactics that are "diminishing to the process," in Lincoln's words, and are "drowning out opposing views," according to Pelosi and Hoyer. Numerous media figures have similarly claimed that Pelosi and Hoyer called protesters or opponents of health care reform "un-American." Read More
Fox News reports on town hall protesters being "organized" sandwich Hemmer's and Tantaros' denial of same
During the August 12 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom, Bill Hemmer and Andrea Tantaros rebuffed Bob Beckel's claim that the protesters opposed to Democratic health care reform appearing at town hall meetings are "organized." But in reports a half-hour earlier and a half-hour later, Carl Cameron confirmed the organizing strategy, reporting that meetings are being "heavily organized by critics," with tea party organizers, among others, "aggressively organizing to bring big crowds." Read More
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