Maybe it’s time for the news media to take a deep breath.
In the wake of Thursday’s breathless reporting, and mis-reporting, of the Supreme Court’s decision on the Affordable Care Act, a timeout might help. Although the court upheld the law, it was hard to know that as the news broke on TV and online Thursday morning.
CNN and Fox News left viewers, including President Obama, confused with reports that suggested the court had ruled unconstitutional a key part of the law — the requirement that individuals buy health insurance. Those reports quickly made their way to other news outlets and were spread far and wide via Twitter.
Except the information was wrong. Within minutes, the full story emerged.
The initial reports were based on just the first part of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.’s opinion for the majority. The court had indeed ruled that the individual mandate was unconstitutional, but only under one provision of the Constitution, the commerce clause. A full reading of the chief justice’s 59-page opinion showed that the court upheld the mandate, under Congress’s authority to impose taxes.
CNN, which also tweeted the “news” and posted it on its Web site, said in a statement Thursday that it “regrets that it didn’t wait to report out the full and complete opinion regarding the mandate. We made a correction within a few minutes and apologize for the error.”
Fox, meanwhile, said it had no regrets. “Our job is to share the news as we learn it,” said Michael Clemente, executive vice president of news-editorial at Fox. “As we were hearing it, and as we were reading it, we let our viewers know about it.” He added, “You don’t have to wait until the conclusion of the Yankees game to give the score.”
In Fox’s case, I expect they were just willing it to happen. I was watching MSNBC and didn’t see the mistake. Imagine that…after all the crap I have taken over watching that station. The President thought it had cratered because he was watching cable news. An attorney in the next room gave him thumbs up because she was talking to someone at the Supreme Court and she was on scotusblog.com. There is something rather ironic about Fox News and CNN screwing it all up, isn’t it?
Way to go. NOT.
DEWEY WINS!
Pretty much right…
On the other hand, how many people are willing to let the free riders continue on? Isn’t this a better way?
I am still in shock that people on this blog were dismissive of 40 million people. That is a lot of people without insurance and those people run up costs. They probably don’t mean to, but that’s what happens. It drives everyone’s premiums up.
No Cargo, more recent, AL GORE WINS FLORIDA
It was VERY confusing watching. Moon, remember our conversation about Roberts, were we right or were we right!
There is a disconnect between the reality and the perception. We ALL pay for those without insurance, in their delay in seeking care and then their subsequent non payments.
my friend is an attorney and their firm wrote a great factual opinion on the decision.
Then, I guess that we need to get rid of the law that says that medical facilities are slaves to the community.
OR
accept this as part of being a wealth community….right?
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. By the way…even with ACR you are still subsidizing the exact same people. Those with incomes less that 400% the poverty level for a family of four ($88,000) will get government subsidies. So, that means, I think that you get to pay for my health insurance….I think we fall into that category. Thanks!
40 million? I wonder where that nice round number comes from…. Obama mentioned 30, 40, 47, and 25 million in different speeches. Whatever works, I guess.
Some of those millions are without insurance because they don’t want it, some because they are here illegally, etc. Of course, now that we’re going to be taxed…but not enough to be punished….and insurance companies are forced to accept those with pre-existing conditions (thus becoming something other than an “insurance” company), people will pay the “tax” until the “tax” and health cost exceed the premiums. And they they’ll get subsidized….and go on the insurance which will have to pay those medical cost….which will drive costs up.
Yay for perverse incentives.
OR
We can junk the whole system, go to a single payer, and everyone can enjoy what I get at the VA. Its adequate. But the waits are long, the drugs available are limited, and the gov’t gets to tell you, without any way to argue, what you’ll get for treatment.
Cargo and Elena:
Even better:
(1) POLLS SHOW WISCONSIN RECALL ELECTION TOO CLOSE TO CALL, DEMOCRAT TAKING SMALL LEAD
and, forward-looking,
(2) POLLS SHOW PRESIDENT OBAMA AHEAD IN BATTLEGROUND STATES!
@Cargosquid
We are rounding. It depends on what demographic you are talking about.
Many people are advocating “medicare for all” and for the record, that isn’t how medicare works. My husband loves his. He never pays a dime because he has an excellent gap policy. It isn’t cheap., He pays about $300 a month. The doughnut whole will be a problem for us this summer on til end of the year because he takes a lot of medication. He will pay 50% for his medicine. that might end up being $500 a month. Not even sure now.
Moon, we’re about in the same position. My meds are mostly generic but my wife has some meds which don’t have generic alternatives so the doughnut hole becomes expensive. But it would be a hell of a lot more without AHC.