MSNBC's Krystal Ball Defends Criticism of Obamacare Website But Then Ludicrously Claims She Doesn't Live in Media 'Bubble'

October 25th, 2013 5:53 PM

During the Thursday edition of MSNBC's The Cycle, co-host Krystal Ball made a surprising claim about herself and other people at the “Lean Forward” channel in response to liberals' demand for more positive coverage of the disastrous roll-out of the ObamaCare program.

“We are not propagandists,” she stated, referring to conservative Republicans. “We don’t insulate ourselves into our own little media bubble, impervious to the reality around us.”

Ball began her “Krystal Klear” segment by providing a list of headlines that would have resulted from a successful start of implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

The titles stated: “ObamaCare Site Gets Rave Reviews,” “Democrats Bolster 2014 Chances With Successful ObamaCare Launch” and “Millions of Previously Uninsured Now Have Health Insurance.”

“Now, if you've been watching our show, you know that I'm pretty angry” about the failures of the effort to begin the health-care program, she stated.

Ball said that she'd been told to “chill out” about the matter, but she said she can't because:

Republicans, of course, have been lying to Americans about the Affordable Care Act, telling them it’s a train wreck, saying this president is a bystander to his own presidency, arguing that the federal government is incompetent and can’t work.

Now they’ve got all kinds of evidence to back up their malicious and destructive claims.

The co-host continued that what she's really angry about is “for millions, the success of this law is literally a matter of life and death.”

While acknowledging that the online site is not the entirety of the Affordable Care Act, Ball stated that “to say it's just a website is a huge understatement.”

“This is the first direct experience that millions of Americans will have with ObamaCare,” she noted, and the website “is the critical entry point to President Obama’s signature achievement; an achievement that we’ve marched for, and rallied for, and fought Supreme Court cases and elections over.”

“I just cannot understand why something so critical could have turned out so poorly,” Ball continued. “I’m not trying to engage in hyperbole here. The Affordable Care Act can still work beautifully, but we’ve sure taken a giant risk -- an unnecessary risk -- with a dismal failure of a roll-out, and there’s really no excuse.”

She then obviously sided with the Democrats by stating: “After all, we're supposed to be the party that knows how to do good government.”

Ball then took a swipe at conservative Republicans:

Frankly, I'm a little disappointed with my left-leaning friends for not being more honest here. Look, we are not propagandists. We're not like them. We don't insulate ourselves into our own happy little media bubble, impervious to the reality around us.

We’re supposed to be the ones who tell it straight even when it’s not convenient.

Of course, anyone who watches MSNBC for any reasonable length of time can tell that the left-wing cable network is, quite literally, a perfect demonstration of a media bubble. While the network does have a miniscule number of self-identified Republicans on its payroll, they often take delight in condemning conservatives and do not defend conservative beliefs nearly to the degree that liberals on Fox News like Susan Estrich, Jehmu Greene, or Santita Jackson do.

Ater making that absurd comparison, the MSNBC co-host then took a shot at her partisan Democrat critics who have insisted that all liberals in the media should refrain from criticizing Obamacare.

“To those who say by pointing out the failing of the website we’re giving comfort to the GOP propagandists, I would say this: We are not the ones giving comfort to those propagandists,” she noted. “The failing website, which is keeping people from signing up for health care, is what has given them comfort.”

Continuing her slam of Republicans, Ball stated: “They don't need our help. Exploiting government failure for cheap political gain is basically the only thing they do well at this point.”

At that point, you can clearly hear a man laughing in the background.

She concluded the segment with a manifesto: “Seems to me that everyone who believes in this law, everyone who believes in universal health care, everyone who believes in the promise of the federal government to do big things ought to be outraged” at the poor beginning of ObamaCare.