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Just a coincidence, I’m sure

Posted by: Phineas on April 10, 2009 at 12:18 am

Doug Ross has compiled a list of nearly 200 newspaper headlines that appeared within 24 hours of each other: all oddly similar, and all originating from the same source:

The following headlines have appeared in newspapers within the last 24 hours. This is not an inclusive list.

• Third of Illinoisans went without health insurance in last 2 years: Sun-Times

• Report: 2.5M in Michigan lacked health insurance: Chicago Tribune

• Study: 29% of Ohioans have gone without health insurance: BizJournals

• Report: More NJ residents lacking health insurance: Forbes

• Study: Many Kansans are uninsured: BizJournals

• Report tallies uninsured in Hawaii: KPUA AM 670

• Study: 1 in 3 Alabamians have no insurance: BizJournals

• 1 out of 4 NH residents lacked health insurance within last two years: WBZ

• 1 out of 3 Coloradans lacked insurance in past two years: Denver Post

• Nearly 1 in 3 Idahoans lack health insurance, study says: Idaho Statesman

• One in four nonelderly Minnesotans has been without health insurance, study shows: Twin Cities

• 1 in 3 are uninsured in Georgia, study says: Augusta Chronicle

• 1.3 million Louisiana residents uninsured: Independent

• Millions in N.C. lack health plan: Winston-Salem Journal

• Uninsured are mostly working: Sun-Herald

• Nearly one-third of Wyoming residents went without health insurance in past two years: Wyoming Tribune

• Report finds health insurance lacking in W.Va.: Charleston Gazette

• Nearly 1/3 Of Kentuckians Uninsured Says Report: WFPL Radio

• REPORT: 254K Rhode Islanders Uninsured at Some Point from 2007-2008: ABC 6

Doug did some digging and found out these headlines all originated with FamiliesUSA, a health-care advocacy group closely associated with the Service Employees International Union and ACORN. Doug also reviews the misleading statistics about insurance coverage that FamiliesUSA and other shills for Administration policy use. Be sure to read the whole thing.

Now, forget for a moment that this is another example of the Administration’s use of astroturfing to create the false image of a groundswell of demand for its policies. That’s all part of the permanent campaign we’re becoming all too familiar with.

What’s really disturbing is that this more proof that journalism in this country, if not dead, is face-down in the gutter bleeding. Either these news vendors were complicit in a propaganda campaign meant to advance the Obama agenda, thus surrendering the independence that’s supposed to be the hallmark of real journalism, or they simply took what was little more than a FamiliesUSA press release at face value, not checking facts or trying to get other views. Instead of being shills, in this scenario they’re just incompetent. I’m sure that makes them feel much better.

(hat tip: Blue Crab Boulevard)

(Cross-posted at Public Secrets, my home on the Web)

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5 Responses to “Just a coincidence, I’m sure”

Comments

  1. Linda F says:
    April 10, 2009 at 3:10 am

    I used to refer to myself as an “online journalist”. I’d be ashamed to use the J-word today.

  2. camojack says:
    April 10, 2009 at 3:36 am

    “Doug did some digging and found out these headlines all originated with FamiliesUSA…”

    So, Doug dug, eh? ;)

  3. Trish says:
    April 10, 2009 at 3:50 am

    Speaking as an Illinoisan (yuck, this state has such mucky words) who does not have health insurance–who asked them, anyway? I sure didn’t.

  4. Eric says:
    April 10, 2009 at 5:56 am

    Wonderful–the lethal, fascistic symbiosis between media and government proceeds apace.

    This can’t last: America is systematically destroying the very economic system which allows government to pay for all its many intrusive programs.

    Of course, when the tax base begins to shrink, and taxes rise in consequence, and the most productive either throw in the towel or relocate to other countries, the ‘liberals’ (‘fascists’, more accurately) will inevitably blame ‘right-wing conservatives’.

    It was a great country, while it lasted; but too many Americans have come to believe that they are ‘entitled’ to X, Y, and Z–at their fellow citizens’ expense, of course. It’ll be interesting to see how long the US hangs together: I give it another fifty years.

  5. Carlos says:
    April 10, 2009 at 11:05 pm

    They are “face down in the gutter bleeding” for one of two reasons: either they are drunk on their own power to crown the next king, or they are so boozed from the muskatel the admin is feeding them they can’t stand up anyway.

    Pretty much sloppy-drunk whores anyway, at least from this perspective.