There is no question that the healthcare debate is in full swing. There is also no question that as the debate rages on, Americans are left feeling more and more confused. From managed care to single payer options, average Americans are having a hard time even understanding what President Obama's groundbreaking healthcare plan is all about. Add that to the countless conflicting media reports and one sees why more and more Americans are feeling that their government is not getting anything done.
Recently, we discussed the role the media plays in politics and why it is often called the fourth branch of the government. For the blog this week, I would first like you to review several sources of coverage on President Obama's healthcare plan. My question to you this week is, “What bias do you see in the media sources that you accessed? Were you able to find two different sources that contradicted one another?” You must access at least two sources and name them in your post to get full credit. Answers are due no later than Thursday, March 4th, 2010. Don't forget to sign you name and class session to receive credit!
I admitting am not well informed about the details surrounding the health care reform. However, after searching for media reports on it I discovered more information surrounding the issue. I also found that there are various opinions surrounding the reform, some not so nice. Time.com opted to describe the reform in a more positive outlook. It offered information surrounding the details and the things it hopes to accomplish. CNN.com took a more negative approach to the issue. They listed what Americans will lose with the bill is passed. They focused on the things that could be changed in people's coverage, not the new things that will be brought about.
ReplyDeleteSarah Cason, Friday Night
http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/24/news/economy/health_care_reform_obama.fortune/
http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2010/02/22/details-of-obamas-health-care-plan/
http://www.freep.com/article/20100302/FEATURES08/100302059/1285/news15/Stupak-rebels-against-new-Obama-health-care-plan
ReplyDeleteIn the article above, it talks about Senators, specifically Stupak, who are against the health care bill. Their reasoning is the added cost to health care and health insurance. The article talked about many Democrats and Republicans who are against the bill in the Houses. The Republicans say the President has not done a good job listening to their specific concerns or requests regarding the bill. One Republican senator said, there are certain aspects he likes about the bill but not enough to keep his vote.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g6GiERp6ENcnwyMS78UJD9UM0PhQD9E6OM5G0
The article above is by the Associated Press. The article basically states what the health care bill includes. It does not show any bias, just facts. It includes both Republican and Democratic views. It does not show Obama in a negative nor positive light.
Biases I would see would be from the Republican party. They are stating that they have not been included or the bill is too risky. Reading just the headlines for the bill do not show much positivity across the board. At this point, many people do not feel in favor of the bill. It does look the President is working with people to fix it though.
~Kyndall Friday night
After reading two different articles on the Presidential health care plans they both seem like they where close to agreeing with each other on what the president is proposing. The only problem was that I could not find a Republican and a Democrats side of the situation. Another odd thing was that when you GOOGLE search Presidential Health care plan the first three top sites take you right to the white house site. So there was no real difference.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I read it all seems nice and dandy on paper. But to actually portray it and get the actual thought done would be different to see. People can always talk the talk but can they walk the walk?
Personally I have not been on any kind of a health care system for more then 3 years till about 4 months ago where I got into a full on blown out fight with my parents to be and telling me how much of a fool I was not to have any kind of health care. Reluctantly I was trying to explain that I don't even have extra money to pay out for something that "may happen" to me. Alas they won and I had to take up another job to afford any kind of a health care in which I had to apply for last month. LAME.
The two articles are listed below:
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/
and
http://www.whitehouse.gov/Issues/Health-Care/
Dave Brown (sat morning)
I will admit that i watch the national news everyday, almost obsessively. I witness everyday the media using two different sets of facts to skew the story to their side of the argument. With health care in general there has been non-stop back and forth arguments, while President Obama states he is trying to be bipartisan, many conservatives believe he is just pushing the lefts agenda and not taking the "american publics concerns" into consideration. In the CNN article it praises President Obama for being bipartisan but then in the same exact article for fox it uses the term in quotes and slams President Obama for not being such.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/03/03/health.care.gop.ideas/index.html
http://whitehouse.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/03/03/president-obama-pushes-bipartisan-health-care-bill/
Tatjana McCart
Saturday Morning
I know nothing about what is going on with the health care plan. I've heard people talk about it, but didn't know what was going on. Knew it was a huge deal, but didn't hav interest in it. So looking over some articles through google I actually picked the 2 above me...hope thats ok. So in the cnn articles they really talked about how Obama was being bipartisan and thought the plan was a good deal, but then at the end I read this
ReplyDelete"The only thing that will be bipartisan about this proposal will be the opposition to it," promised Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky. "The American people are not for this."
And i got confused...how can you talk about it being a good thing and him being bipartisan but then put something negative like this in the same article. Unless this is just one persons opinion...im confused.
Anyways in the second article from fox they really dogged the plan. Said the white house doesn't agree to start the bill over. They don't think obama is being bipartisan and they give a few examples on how hes not. They talked about the minority whip in this article and i knew what they were talking about!
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/03/03/health.care/index.html
http://whitehouse.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/03/03/president-obama-pushes-bipartisan-health-care-bill/
Jessie Buechler-friday night
1.Source:
ReplyDeleteThe White House President Barack Obama. (2010). Health Care. Retrieved on February 26, 2010 from: http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/health-care.
2.Source:
Organizing for America. (2010). Issues: Health Reform. Retrieved on February 26, 2010 from: http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/
The first source discusses how On September 9, 2009 at the Joint Session of Congress President Obama put out a proposal to address that lowers costs, enhances quality health care, and guarantee choices for health insurance. The purpose for the proposal is to make it more affordable for Americans. It should increase health coverage, alleviate family budgets, federal budgets, and economy budgets, create sustainability, and make health insurers further accountable. The President has shown progress by signing the Children’s Health Insurance Re-authorization Act, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and The Recovery Act. The second source discusses “We are closer than ever to historic health insurance reform – reform that will extend coverage to more than 30 million Americans, provide security and stability to those who have health insurance, and shift power from insurance companies to consumers.” The health insurance reform has many building blocks that the House and Senate set. Consumers need protection from getting denied coverage based on pre-existing conditions, capping total coverage, and dropping them when they get sick. The protection that rests how much premium dollars insurance companies spend on profits, marketing and salaries. They are also trying to lower the cost of health care for senior citizens. These are just a few of many of the health reforms they are work on for the American people.
My opinion is that President Obama is eventually going to make it so that people without health insurance you could possibly go to jail i mean there's like tons on pages on what might happen i just think its fine the way it is. Not everyone can afford health insurance and it's been that way since George Washington.
Taylor Northam-friday night
March 4, 2010 6:18
http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/24/news/economy/health_care_reform_obama.fortune/
ReplyDeleteThe above article takes about everything that you will loose if this health care plan is pased. It is completly negative and doesn't support any part of the health care plan. You can tell a Republican wrote this article because it supports everything the republicans have been saying. My thoughts are this... Shut up Republicans! You are the people who have ruined this country for the last 8 years, let someone try to do things differently since nothing that has been done did anything but put this country in the economic state that it is in now. Why shouldn't everyone be intitled to health care? Other countries have a similar plan and it works for them. This President promised change, and change we want. Obama has to have some balls and push this through!
http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/health/2009/07/29/2009-07-29_what_you_need_to_know_about_president_obamas_health_care_reform_plan.html?page=1
This article is pretty neutral, but it does contradict the first one. The first one talks about all the things you will loose and this article talks specifically about a few of the issues the other article said you will loose and states that you will not loose them. I don't see a grey area on this topic. It's black or white, you either support it or you don't.
Carolyn Carden Friday night
The health care bill has undergone so many revisions since I first analyzed it (at least the summarized "Health care for dummies" version), I'm not quite certain of the details at this point. I can remember talks of tax penalties for those who opted to go uninsured; I'll leave that one untouched for obvious reasons. Also, many have referred to a possible bill that would prohibit insurance companies from denying any person based on pre-existing conditions. On the surface it sounds great, but is everyone in support of this facet willing to inheret the inevitable spike in insurance premiums as a result of this? On the other side, we have many "Free enterprise" republicans who only seem to support policies that promote their own endeavors. The tightening grip of health insurance companies on the American public, as it stands, is a very real threat - among other things - to our dwindling middle class.
ReplyDeleteEver since the Bush administration, there has been a self-generated disconnect between liberals and conservatives in Washington; each side being so absorbed in their own views, it's been brain surgery to make any progress (unless it involves undermining the Bill of Rights). Many conservatives can be self-righteous and close-minded, where a lot of liberals often disregard conventional wisdom, feeling as though they're too intelligent for the world to understand. It's no longer about unity in America. It's about Fox News vs MSNBC. Bill O' Reilly & Greta van Sustern vs Rachel Maddow & Keith Olberman (maybe it's a little one sided). Last week I caught NY Senator Anthony Weiner speaking at a senate hearing. Amongst his emotionally driven dialogue was a quote that stood out to me: "The republican party is a fully owned subsidiary of the insurance industry". Although while watching, I couldn't help but admire his passion, it became clear to me that this is about more than health care. After the Bush administration, how could anybody trust the republican party? On the other hand, anybody who puts blind faith in Barack Obama at this stage in the game is outright foolish.
Of course, the health care movement will be interpreted differently by either side. In hindsight, it seems as though the "Tea Parties" were somewhat of a prologue to all this. One online article I read was titled as follows "Dems Race to Pass Health Care Bill as Tea Partiers Plan Town Hall Wave"...as if congress would be intimidated. Guess who? On the left, however, exists an equal bias. A CNN artical I came across was titled "Obama: Health care progress a victory for American people". Although the title clearly tacks Obama's voice on the claim, the literature doesn't fall too far behind.
At the end of the day, I don't think the problem lies within the details. Trust is the main issue here. The problem is our government can not be trusted; left, right or center.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/03/04/dems-race-pass-health-care-town-hall-wave-horizon/
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/12/21/health.care.senate.vote/index.html
Anna Wilson
ReplyDeleteFriday Night
The website:
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/
describes the benefits of the Health Care Reform Plan. This includes lowering costs of care for seniors, improving Medicare, guaranteeing coverage and having affordable health care options. With having this said, yes I agree with the bill. However, there is more to this plan that just that. Many people that would have coverage now would not and would be switched to Medicaid. At the same time, others health care costs could go up. A good summarizatio of this is "The best independent research shows that the Obama plan would cover roughly half of the 45 million uninsured through an expansion of public coverage; rely on soft methods of cost-savings; and require significant increases in federal expenditures." from http://www.heritage.org/research/healthcare/wm2114.cfm.
I watched Fox news, during the day, and then later watched the Daily Show with John Stewart, The details are vague but I recall that Fox tried to emphasize the overwhelming disapproval for the healthcare reform by walking into a lobby of a hotel where four or five elderly citizens were sitting and interviewed them, in all of their set-in-their-ways opinions, with completely leading questions.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to learn a bit more about this, so I went to the link in the post above, http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/ and took a look around. It appears that paying an overall higher federal tax for medical expenses for an overall lower healthcare price is the goal.
Anyway back to Fox news and all of that. I can see how the media can selectively create a peek into the so-called public consciousness by inventing context and asking leading questions to guide the interviewees in the direction the interviewers ultimately want them to go, for whatever means.
Demian Stevens
Saturday Morning
Kati Melcho
ReplyDeleteFriday Evening
I will be the first to admit that I know little to nothing about this bill. The only thing I really know about it, is that it is VERY contriversal; people either love it or hate it and there is next to no gray area.
http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2010/02/22/details-of-obamas-health-care-plan/
This web page highlights certain point of the bill. It kind of talks about how it was a rushed bill, but overall, seems to support the bill and the efforts Obama is showing in presenting this bill.
http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/24/news/economy/health_care_reform_obama.fortune/
Whereas this web page is going into great detail about how awful Obama's healthcare bill is.
With all of the contiversal opinions, it is leaving Americans confused on what this bill is about and whether or not to support it.
I, myself, am still not really sure where I stand and have now realized the extensive research that needs to be done in order to fully comprehend the bill and what it is ACTUALLY doing for this country if given the chance.
i would like to say that i hope that we can get health care for everyone and that would help everyone that cannot affored any of that. i went to cnn.com and then i went to time and that they were going agianst each other and you can tell which broadcast company would like the health care and who would not like the health care plan to go through as well.
ReplyDeleteIm not sure what is going on with the heath plan, so many things are being said. So I just dont payation until people can make up there minds. So I have no comment.
ReplyDeleteFox news try to scare Americans. They make people feel that the Government is going to tell you when you can live or die. They make you think that there is nothing wrong with health care. When MSNBC tries to tell people there is something wrong with health care. Both news channels are to busy with politics, when there other news to talk about.
ReplyDelete“Why do you think abortions are so much higher in the African-American community? Do these abortion clinics provide a needed service, or do they encourage stunted African-American population growth?”
ReplyDeleteI haven't got a clue why abortions are so much more prevalent in the African American community, and i haven't seen the numbers (the real numbers) , areas, or when this survey or when these numbers were found.
I make no assumptions as to whether race plays a role in this, and this is quite a difficult question to answer with any degree of accuracy or confidence in my answer.
I would guess that it comes from pregnancies with young women, in poorer communities, without much education on how to prevent pregnancies- and thus the pregnancies that are unwanted are seen to have only one solution- abortions.
i can't offer any real answer without doing a lot of research, and the whole issue of abortion... uh... hits a bit close to home- my ex fiancee 'got cold feet', 'changed her mind', whatever you want to call it. We had a pregnancy that was planned for, expected, wanted, and then... not.
i'm not sure how much more i want to talk about this issue, but i can't just let my personal feelings interrupt with me getting my points and credit for this assignment.
Demian Stevens, Saturday Morning
for my research it was a little different, a couple of the resources i used were proquest and a statistics website. i was researching statistics in abortion, not necessarily choosing a side. so in that sense, no i did not see how the media was biased, but i can definitely see how they could be.
ReplyDeleteIt is obvious why Americans are so confused when it comes to health care reform. Just as with any important issue, each side has their thoughts and opinions and will do anything to make them known, and to try and make others agree with them. I see commercials on the daily talking about how "we can't afford president Obama's health care reform" back to back with commercials promoting the fact that "American's can't survive without this reform" Unless one goes out and does extensive research, paying attention to media biases then there is no way they will be fully informed on the TRUTH of this issue.
ReplyDeleteMy first resource was found via Barack Obama's facebook page. (as sill as that sounds). It is a video titled The Cost of Inaction. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-akyX3cQZYo The video talks about how many American's think that if we do nothing about health care, it will simply stay the same, which is false.
The next video was President Barack Obama speaking of the "final march" for health care reform. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtZLvFrl6qk
Clearly these two videos are skewed toward Obama's agenda and what he wants to get acoomplished, and my view is a bit biased, as a huge supporter of health care reform, but I think what he is saying is legitimate, and necessary.
Carina Street
Friday Night Class
Long story short, it has to do mostly with the political alignment of the news organization doing the reporting. From what I've seen and read, news stations with a more Democratic philosophy tend to believe that the healthcare reform bill will be passed regardless of what the Republican party tries and the Republican news stations tend to believe that there is no way the Democrats will be able to pass the heathcare reform bill. In my opinion, both sides are simply envisioning their goals much like the way athletes envision obtaining their goals. Both sides can sit there and argue all they want about what they think will happen but until they actually vote, none of them really know.
ReplyDeleteA Left-Wing Perspective: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/18/AR2010031805315.html
A Right-Wing Perspective: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/03/06/obamas-stand-health-care-reform-follows-challenging-year/?test=latestnews
Michael Moore
Saturday Morning