September 26, 2007


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY

ETHICALLY CHALLENGED STOSSEL

Broadcaster John Stossel likes to advertise himself as a "journalist," but he's really just a right-wing shill. Stossel is a devout believer in the "free market." You could summarize like Tarzan: free market good, government bad. Stossel was attacking the idea of government-provided universal health care and used one-sided interviews and straw men to support his argument. If people like Stossel attack something, it's probably something we should support. This commentary is at www.fair.org:

ABC's 20/20 host John Stossel got an hour of prime time on September 14 to launch a one-sided attack on single-payer healthcare, and advocate for the so-called "free market" solutions that Stossel and his favorite sources prefer.

"Tonight, we ask some provocative questions about your healthcare. We get some surprising answers," explained Stossel at the beginning of the "Sick in America" special. But "surprising" is not the first thing that comes to mind for anyone familiar with Stossel's journalism; as usual, Stossel relied largely on interviews with people who endorse the ABC host's platitudes about the virtues of the marketplace ("Private sector does everything better because they compete," for example). Except for an appearance by filmmaker Michael Moore, which serves to set up some of Stossel's complaints, the experts interviewed all share Stossel's vision: right-wing think tank spokespeople, a Harvard business school professor, a CEO who offers employees "health savings accounts" instead of insurance, a senior fellow at Manhattan Institute identified only as a "Canadian doctor" who criticizes his country's health system, and so forth.

Stossel tries to make the familiar argument that public healthcare programs in countries like Canada and Great Britain don't live up to the hype. "Many people say that healthcare in countries like France, Germany, Britain and Canada is great because it's free. Government pays for everything. No one has to worry. And free is good, right? Well, not so fast." In an effort to debunk the idea that "free" is always good, Stossel presents footage of giveaways for gasoline and ice cream causing chaos.

DOING THE CRUSADES AGAIN

The right-wing wackos who have been driving the aggressive war-mongering foreign policy we've seen the past few years probably would have loved the Crusades. Good Christians marched against those evil Moslems. Nowadays the most extreme wackos would have you believe that the terrorist attacks on 9/11 were just a prelude to a new war between the western "civilized" world and those pagan Moslems. Now we get "Terrorism Awareness Week" featuring the likes of Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, and Rick Santorum. This article by Frank J. Ranelli is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

Now consider these alternatives to so-called “islamo-fascists.” Hitler killed all total 12 million Jews, dissenters and infirmed people, amassed a state-sponsored, mechanical-backed army of millions that reeked havoc on numerous continents for 12 years. Stalin held the world’s collective stage hostage under a repressive regime replete with thousands of nuclear missiles that came within minutes of incendiary obliteration of the Earth, as we know it.

When in view of the heinous atrocities of Hitler and Stalin, the demagoguery and utter mendacity of the Terrorism Awareness Project should immediately be dismissed. Yet, over two million misinformed and deluded people have visited their site just this year alone. Adding to the sensational theatrics this fringe group is trying to propagate across college campuses are wild assertions such as “the academic left has mobilized to create sympathy for the enemy” and “the nation will be rocked by the biggest conservative campus protest ever - Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, a wake-up call for Americans on 200 university and college campuses.”