The 'Center' of the Health Reform Debate
08/06/2009 by Peter HartToday's Washington Post offers a helpful lesson on the media's notion of centrism; see the headline and subhead:
Senators Closer to Health Package: Bipartisan Talks on Reform Move Toward Center
The "talks" refer to the plan coming out of the Senate Finance Committee--a plan that "seeks middle ground" and could provide media-friendly " bipartisan agreement." One of the principle features of this "centrist" plan would be scuttling the "public option" favored by many Democrats-- and, coincidentally, supported by a majority of the public. Apparently it is "centrist" and "middle ground" to discard popular policy proposals. It makes sense in the corporate media, somehow.
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August 6th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Not for these reasons, but doesn't the "public option" need to be flushed?
That's what you do with turds, isn't it?
Maybe with that piece of shit no longer on the table (apologies for the image that evokes), MoveOn and other "progressive" Obamacare pimps will be forced to take a stand on single payer, and will show which side they're really on.
You don't give someone dying of thirst piss to drink. Maybe it's better than nothing, but this isn't anywhere near the best we can hope for, is it?
August 9th, 2009 at 3:07 am
I'm with Doug. The Senate Finance Committee might ditch the joke "public option" for the wrong reasons, but it does need to ditched. FAIR did a great expose on the media blackout of single-payer. People who want the "public option" still probably think that this means a Medicare option, since the corporate media hasn't publicized the fact that now, it isn't. Single=payer is still what people want.
August 10th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
[...] (Beat the Press, 8/9/09) sees the Washington Post as simply "keeping with its strict editorial policy of only letting others tell readers what 'populists' think," when publishing its August 9 [...]