Medicare Scare-Mongering

The text of the petition you see directly below is exactly the same as the one supplied for signature at the bottom of this page. The only difference between them is that this background version provides links, as well as two footnotes, for anyone desiring more information.

As with many of the other NY Times editorials on Health Care this year, "Medicare Scare-Mongering" on September 27 appeared to be heavily biased against Republicans. Not only did it accuse them of "cynicism and hypocrisy," but it ended by concluding that:

"... Republicans have done far too good a job at obscuring and twisting the facts and spreading unwarranted fear. It is time to call them to account. President Obama and the Democrats in Congress have to make the case forcefully that health care reform will overwhelmingly benefit Americans -- including the millions of older Americans who participate in Medicare."

While we fully agree that anyone "obscuring and twisting the facts and spreading unwarranted fear" should be called to account, we believe it is irresponsible for a major news organization such as yours to single out Republicans -- especially when there are recent examples of "scare-mongering" by Democrats, including President Obama:

1. A Democratic National Committee advertisement accused Republicans of voting "to abolish Medicare." This was determined to be "NOT TRUE" by FactCheck.org, which published its full analysis on September 8 under the heading of "Senior Scare, Yet Again."

2. During his remarks to a Joint Session of Congress on September 9, President Obama stated that, "One man from Illinois lost his coverage in the middle of chemotherapy because his insurer found that he hadn't reported gallstones that he didn't even know about. They delayed his treatment and he died because of it." This was determined to be FALSE* by the St. Petersburg Times' PolitiFact web site, which received a Pulitzer prize earlier this year for (among other accomplishments) "separating rhetoric from truth to enlighten voters."

In the future, we hope that you will make a special effort to be less biased in both your editorializing and reporting.**

*This was just one of a large number of half-truths and outright falsehoods that have been documented by PolitiFact in its two year coverage of our ongoing national debate about health care. It is only natural that those who are passionately concerned about this issue would tend to exaggerate on occasion, and there is ample evidence of that from advocates of both Democratic and Republican reforms -- including, unfortunately, those who appear to be opposed to any major reforms at all.

And while we the people are fortunate to now have nonpartisan online resources such as FactCheck.org and PolitiFact.com to help us separate fact from fiction, they have obviously not proven to be much of a deterrent for the age-old political habit of spreading "misinformation." That's why the author of this petition believes it's more important than ever for concerned citizens (especially political Independents) to speak out whenever major news organizations become as biased as the New York Times apparently has.

** A good example was set in 2007-2008 by the Washington Post's effort to "truth squad the national political debate" leading up to the presidential election. Numerous articles were written on Health and other issues, without preferential treatment appearing to be given to either Democrats or Republicans. This was evident in the significant coverage given to presidential candidates Obama and McCain, as well as vice presidential candidates Biden and Palin.