Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann made two false claims about healthcare on CBS's Face the Nation last Sunday that went unchallenged by host Bob Schieffer. CBS did, however, post an article on their website challenging her claims. FAIR has a new action alert encouraging Face the Nation to debunk Bachmann's lies on its upcoming April 4 broadcast. Read the alert here and post your letters to CBS below.
Apr
01
2010
Will Face the Nation Factcheck Guest's Healthcare Lies?
By 19 Comments
About Julie HollarManaging Editor of Extra! Magazine
Julie Hollar is the managing editor of FAIR's magazine, Extra!. Her work received an award from Project Censored in 2005, and she has been interviewed by such media outlets as the Los Angeles Times, Agence France-Presse and the San Francisco Chronicle. A graduate of Rice University, she has written for the Texas Observer and coordinated communications and activism at the Lesbian/Gay Rights Lobby of Texas. Hollar also co-directed the 2006 documentary Boy I Am and was previously active in the Paper Tiger Television collective.
Dear Face the Nation,
You have done fact-checking of some untrue statements made by your guests on 3/28 — demonstrating many falsities. These disclaimers should be spoken in the same forum in which they were made — for journalistic ethics. They should be spoken on the broadcast version of Face the Nation, not just on your website.
For more information, please see the excellent discussion on the FAIR website.
thank you,
Betsy Taylor
Lexington KY
CBS News,
I was happy to find out that CBS news debunked Rep. Michelle Bachmann's rhetoric about the health care bill on it's website. It is great when a newsgroup corrects and challeneges mistakes other reporters and "experts" in the industry make, especially those made on its own show. I think it would be even better if CBS news reported these corrections on its upcoming April 4th broadcast. The online audience is only a part of CBS's audience and informing people on TV will reach the rest of that audience.
I hope that host Bob Schieffer will report the mistakes that intended to mislead debates and information over the health care bill.
Email sent to CBS 4/1/10:
CBS's Face the Nation should share its Web debunking of Rep. Michelle Bachmann's rhetoric on its upcoming April 4 broadcast.
We've been fans of Bob Schieffer and Face the Nation. Unless you PUBLICLY DEBUNK Bachmann's lies, we will never watch FTN again.
Please let us know when you plan to make things right.
Bill and Jeanette Gibson
208 Monte Vista
San Clemente, CA
billgbsn@gmail.com
Email sent to CBS on 4/1/10:
Our nation is experiencing an epidemic of misinformation which is insidiously impacting all of us. More importantly, this epidemic is slowly eroding the very foundation by which our Founding Fathers established this countryâ┚¬Ã‚¦on a foundation of a well informed citizenry. Once the people of this country can no longer rely on accurate and hard-hitting journalism to keep in check the politicians and so-called pundits, we can say good bye to reason and critical thinking in the public forum. I personally do not want our country governed by the capricious and self-serving emotions of a select few.
Democracy depends on all journalists, and especially high profile media, to promote the cause of a well informed citizenry. Please share your Web debunking of Rep. Michelle Bachmann's rhetoric on your upcoming April 4 broadcast of Face the Nationâ┚¬Ã‚¦where her egregious misinformation was aired.
Respectfully,
Mark Leaman
Email sent to CBS 4/1/2010:
Dear CBS,
Last Sunday, Michele Bachmann was on Bob Schieffer's program Face The Nation, and made statements about Health Care Reform that were just plain false. These statements went unchallenged by Schieffer on the air. Even though CBS posted on its website a debunking of her comments, Bob Schieffer needs to set the record straight ON THE AIR, where his audience was terribly misled. Not everyone goes to CBS' website to see what is posted. The TV viewing audience deserves to hear the truth. Please set the record straight about Michele Bachmann's statements this coming Sunday on Face The Nation, and do so very clearly.
Thank you.
Eileen Gibbs
CBS News and FTN,
After reading FAIR's call to action regarding Rep Bachmann's lack of respect for facts and blatant propaganda on last Sunday's show, I encourage you to cover the facts on this Sunday's show.
Posting a fact checking piece by David Riedel was a start but does not have the same reach as the broadcast.
Thank you
Mike Reineck
To Whom It May Concern:
It is unreal that Schieffer allowed Michelle Bachmann to lie and repeat rhetoric about the healthcare legislation. I think it is up to reporters and the news stations to be accurate. People hear these lies and because they are coming from their representatives they think these people are telling the truth. Michelle was talking about an inaccurate takeover of the Nation's Healthcare. She also, quoted The New England Journal and it was not a proper quote. I believe Schieffer should refute this as untruthful. There have been so many lies told concerning healthcare. People are believing these and are becoming angry. The job of the news is not to feed into this anger. Please refute the language delivered by Michelle and tell the truth. There are many who need this healthcare help. The Republicans aren't adding or helping these people. They are hurting them. Please, have Schieffer tell the truth concerning Bachmann's lies.
I am also, joining my friends in requesting that you do this debunking on your upcoming April 4th. broadcast so, it will reach the same audience of listeners that the previous broadcast was sent to.
Thank you,
Lynn N. Morris (educator, WV)
Dear Sirs:
Please accept my admiration and appreciation for David Riedel's article http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/28/ftn/main6341097.shtml on the FacetheNation page of the cbsnews website debunking the incendiary misinformation promulgated by Representative Bachman while a guest on Face The Nation this past Sunday.
We need more journalistic integrity such as Riedel's debunking article. An important role of journalists is to point out inaccuracies, and especially mis-leading or false statements, made by political and other public figures who use their public access via news outlets to shape public opinion, when they occur. To not do so is to ignore the journalist's responsibility to enlighten his audience, be they viewers or readers. To not do so makes the journalist not a journalist, but, in Stephen Cobert's famous allusion, simply stenographers.
But more importantly, to not do so makes the journalist complicit in promulgating the inaccurate, the mis-leading, and the blatantly false statements, and complicit in furthering whatever agenda these falsehoods were meant to serve.
Consequently, David Riedel must include a "false-hood debunking" section in the Face the Nation broadcast to debunk at least the grossly misleading and false statements made by guests. If such debunking cannot be done concurrent with the offending broadcast, then the correction should be made in the very next broadcast.
Such debunking should be done without offering the offending guest immediate or concurrent rebuttal opportunity, for two reasons: (1) successful politicians and public figures are highly skilled in the art of "spin", meaning they are capable of distorting either the original falsehood or the debunking statements to effectively exonerate themselves; and (2) the threat of factual debunking after the fact of their performance should serve as some deterrent to future guests abusing the truth in their interviews.
Holding all guests of whatever political persuasion to the standard of truthfulness is an important function of journalism.
The public will be well served by such a debunking news feature.
Regards,
Jim Markovics
It is important for the networks to air truthful information
on any subject. This is especially true of the ongoing
health care debate. Rhetoric not based on fact should be
discouraged.
The lives and health of American citizens should be the first
consideration.
Marion Seymour 2300 W Alameda St Santa Fe 87507
Dear Face the Nation,
I strongly encourage CBS's Face the Nation to share its Web debunking of
Rep. Michelle Bachmann's rhetoric, on its upcoming April 4 broadcast. I was
delighted to see that you posted corrections on your web site. But, your TV
audience must also be made aware of the flawed claims of the Representative
from Minnesota.
The reason I choose to watch Face the Nation, as opposed to the ABC or NBC
Sunday morning shows, is because Bob Shieffer has more credibility than both
of the other networks, combined. I trust you. So, please continue with that
trend.
B. F. Thiele
2031 Wagner Rd.
Glenview, IL 60025
847-998-0312
[...] Will Face the Nation Factcheck Guest's Healthcare Lies? [...]
I am an audience member and catch "Face The Nation" often on Sunday mornings. FAIR has let me know that some of Michelle Bachmann's recent comments on "Face The Nation" on the subject of healthcare reform have been debunked on your website.
Philosophically, my viewpoints tend to be antithetical to those of Ms. Bachmann, and I am certainly no fan of hers. However, political discourse being what it is, she certainly has the right to her opinions, both as an individual and as the elected representative of her district.
But when her comments on "Face The Nation," which I consider a "show of record" — authoritative and definitive — veer so far away from the facts of the situation as to appear to be "cut from whole cloth" so to speak, then it becomes everyone's problem. We as a people develop our our entire political worldview from shows such as yours. If her blatantly incorrect comments were worthy of a "fact-check" on your website, then they certainly deserve the same on your program. We as a nation deserve this.
Sincerely,
[signed]
I have requested that CBS ask Representative Michelle Baumann to recant her misinformation about health care on the next broadcast and apologize for adding more misinformation about this legislation.
I have requested that CBS ask Representative Michelle Baumann to recant her misinformation (according to the FAIR factchecker) about health care on the next broadcast and apologize for adding more misinformation about this legislation.
I really like Bob Schieffer, and FTN is in my top 3 favorite Sunday news analysis shows. That said, there were some utterly crazy things said by Bachmann on last Sunday's show. I see corrections on the website – thank you. Now please make those corrections on the show, including the correction about the NEJM, for those who don't follow the website.
Dear Mr. Schieffer,
I liked that you posted corrections to Rep. Bachmann's false assertions (from
FTN last Sunday) on your website.
I wish there was a ClaraBell buzzer for your show (and the other Sunday shows)
so that when political statements are made that are not based on fact, you or
your show's learned staff could press it! And state the real facts.
I am outraged-out on the TPT (Tea Party Truth) and it is no longer newsworthy
except to be rebutted. Don't you as a news reporter have the responsibility to
ensure that nationally televised information is based on the truth? And if the
buzzer goes off repeatedly on your show, are you not playing a game with your
audience by inviting people onto your show who will be buzzered?
These TPTs are misinformation designed to confuse and roil people into angry
mobs. Check the latest polls re: how many Americans believe President Obama is a
Muslim or was not born here. Why ask stupid questions in a poll? We all know the
questions shape the answers and reinforce tainted information.
News is fact. Talk shows about the news ought to maintain credibility standards.
Be the first! Don't invite Karl Rove or Sarah Palin or Liz Cheney on!
Sincerely,
Gretchen McNealus
Canandaigua, NY 14424
Dear Face the Nation,
I hope you get inundated with enough outraged ex-viewers to offer an on-the-air apology for not correecting Michelle Bachmann's false comments on "Face The Nation" on the subject of healthcare reform that have already have been debunked on your websitecorrection. Watching your show will be a waste of time for me until it gets back on track. Get your act together and get back in the good graces of FAIR.
Dear CBS
As you well know, by now, Michelle Bachmann is a wacktard fuckloon. Which is okay, since one supposes even wacktard fuckloons should be represented in Congress, considering the numbers of them which parade their ignoraqnce at almost any and evdery occasion. Her popularity testifies to the size of the wacktrd/fuckloon constituency, and CBS should be commended for its open-mindedness.
That said, CBS anchor Bob (Friend of Bush) Shieffer permitted a couple of Bachmann 's real waacktard/fuckloon holwers to go unrebutted in the segment in which she appeared on 3/28. I have looked at video of her, and of her 'followers,' and I can understand why Shieffer, an aging, careful, comfortably corrupt man, might eschew outright confrontation with a demonstrated Wacktard/fuckloon eminence on national tv.
To your organization's semi-credit, you did post refutations of her assertions on a blog. And I suppose it is ingrateful of me to find that reply to be unsatisfactory, but I do.
It seems to me that, as long as neither Bachmann nor any of her wacktard/fuckloon constituency will be present to threaten either physical or psychic damage, you would be serving the interests of your viewers if you were to repeat the refutations you published so obscurely earlier this week.
I am in absolutely no doubt as to your response to this missive: you'll utterly ignore it. In this way, our transaction will epitomize the relation between the modern 'press' and the citizens it is supposed to inform, and will serve as an apt object lesson for those who still tremble at the possibility of their own agency, evanescent ande ephemeral as it is.
It does seem to me a misrepresentation of fact on FAIR's part to come so readily to the defense of the healthcare overhaul. While the organization is correct in calling for Shieffer to clear the record on the air, and correctly refutes certain of Rep. Bachmann's statements and figures, the fact remains that the government has taken missive (sic) control of a bulk of the once-private sector. The American federal government now controls the conduct, and therefore business and potential, via TARP bailouts and now the excessive law governing insurance companies and distribution of healthcare, of the majority of contributors to the national economy. As the Clinton administration so boldly declared, when it left office, that it had restored the federal budget to a state of surplus, there was little concrete evidence to back it, and even less fact-checking on the part of the American press and watchdog groups. Everyone seems to have bought it. Only in recent years, as new documents come to light and sources have stepped forward, is it becoming known that there was in fact no surplus, instead only an overhaul-style "redistribution" of government deficits over numerous forthcoming or newly-enacted social programs. The claim went unchallenged, and was a Democratic gloat during each of the following two elections in 2000 and 2004. If it remains a source of debate today, it is only because even when the numbers were crunched and the truth was made known, the population took little notice.
I would add to the FAIR letter that the American people in general also need to do some more reading, fact-checking, and make a more conscious effort to research multiple sources in seeking answers to their questions on the most important issues of the day. The most direct media source, if you've the time, is C-SPAN's live televised coverage of sessions of Congress — the only way to know for sure is to see it for yourself, before the media get a hold of it and the politicians try to mince the facts, after the fact, on the once-thought-provoking shows like "Meet the Press" or "Face the Nation."
Shall we seek our information vigorously, on our own, with vigilance and the truth foremost on our minds? If truth is the root and means of freedom, how can the individual trust collective news sources, which can assault us from every angle, from every screen and radio wave? How dare we, and call ourselves free.
Shall we continue to rely on headlines and AP blurbs that tick by on our MSN or Yahoo sign in screens? Or nonsensical politicians like Bachmann, or Baxter, or Pelosi, for that matter?
Doesn't anyone else just want to laugh at the whole damn circus of it?