This week on CounterSpin:. Obama's health care reform plans are being called 'backdoor socialism' by some, while others say it looks like too much of the same. But how good a job are the press doing in parsing those competing definitions and explaining what's on the table? We'll hear from health policy expert Ellen Shaffer of the Center for Policy Analysis.

Also on CounterSpin today, when a billion gallons of something called coal ash spilled into a town in Eastern Tennessee, the story made national news. But like we see with many other environmental catastrophes, the media spotlight shifted quickly. The dangers of coal ash, though, did not. The Center for Public Integrity recently released a report "Coal Ash: The Hidden Story." We'll speak with reporter Kristen Lombardi about what she uncovered before and after the Tennessee disaster.

LINKS:
--Ellen Shaffer

--Coal Ash: The Hidden Story, by Kristen Lombardi (Center for Public Integrity, 2/19/09)