“Días cruciales en la historia de EE.UU.” fue el titular presentado por Telemundo, filial de NBC y MSNBC, en su noticiero nacional estelar que se convirtió, virtualmente, en un tributo al “legado de cambio social” del presidente Obama.
Medical Insurance
By Matthew Balan | June 30, 2015 | 4:15 PM EDT
On Tuesday, CNN's Jim Acosta asked President Obama about "what some people are calling 'your best week ever.'" Acosta played up that "you had two Supreme Court decisions supportive of the Affordable Care Act and of gay rights. You also delivered a speech down in Charleston that was pretty warmly received." The correspondent then underlined that 'it seems that you've built up some political capital for the remaining months of your presidency." He asked, "I'm curious, how you want to use it? What hard things do you want to tackle at this point?"
Dear NY Times: Who Has Been in Charge All This Time? After 8 Years of 'Financial Downturn,' Far More Americans Delay Major Life Events
By Tom Blumer | June 26, 2015 | 8:40 PM EDT There may no better illustration of how much harm the economy has inflicted on the American people during the Obama era than a March 2015 Harris survey commissioned by American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. The AICPA's Thursday press release reported that "a majority of American adults (51 percent) have delayed at least one important life decision in the last year due to financial reasons ... an increase of 20 percentage points from a similar survey conducted in 2007."
Covering the survey's results, Ann Carrns at the New York Times, in an item carried at CNBC (also found at the Times's web site), waited seven paragraphs to note a particularly damning statistic about a situation Obamacare advocates like to claim has already been solved.
By Brad Wilmouth | June 26, 2015 | 2:09 PM EDT
On Friday's CNN Newsroom, during a discussion of whether it has been a "defining week" for the Obama presidency, CNN commentator and Daily Beast editor John Avlon declared that President Obama has been a "prophet figure" who "presages" the political implications of the nation's "changing demographics."
By Curtis Houck | June 26, 2015 | 12:44 PM EDT
Following President Obama’s statement on Supreme Court’s ruling Friday morning to legalize gay marriage in all 50 states, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer couldn’t help but marvel at how “years from now, historians will write about this week – amazing week here in the United States” as President Obama saw favorable rulings on ObamaCare and gay marriage in addition to Congress passing “his free trade authority legislation.” As the President left the podium at the White House Rose Garden, Blitzer reminded viewers that Obama was speaking “[f]or the second day in a row” so he could “applaud a major historic United States Supreme Court decision.”
By Curtis Houck | June 25, 2015 | 11:23 PM EDT
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling in favor of President Obama in the ObamaCare subsidy case, the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC were out in full force during their Thursday evening newscasts to cheer the “historic ruling” and labeled Chief Justice John Roberts as a “conservative” after having “saved” ObamaCare “from a devastating blow.” CBS anchor Scott Pelley assured viewers in an opening tease that “[m]illions of Americans will keep their health insurance as the Supreme Court today saves the President's signature law.”
By Curtis Houck | June 25, 2015 | 9:30 PM EDT
Touting how “over ten million people have now signed up for health insurance under the ObamaCare law,” NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt on Thursday night trumpeted “the ObamaCare law now directly effecting so many families who say it’s been quite literally a lifesaver.” Chris Jansing delivered heartwarming anecdotes about people who have benefitted and only, at the very end of her report, did she squeeze in a brief mention of how some have been hurt.
By Curtis Houck | June 25, 2015 | 6:23 PM EDT
Despite getting a favorable ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court on the ObamaCare case King v. Burwell, MSNBC’s Now host Alex Wagner couldn’t help but take issue with Justice Antonin Scalia as a Justice and the “bitterness and the vitriol” he employed in his dissent. She lamented that it “revealed a deeply emotional, partisan core that informs Scalia's decision making.”
By Tom Johnson | June 25, 2015 | 5:35 PM EDT
In the lead-up to the King v. Burwell decision, not a few liberals claimed that most Republicans secretly wanted the Supreme Court to uphold certain Obamacare subsidies because quashing them would have caused major political hassles for the GOP. The SCOTUS ruled Thursday morning, and before noon we had examples of the updated conventional wisdom: Republicans are happy with the decision, which will spare them harm in the 2016 elections.
One post in this vein came from Steve Benen, a producer for MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show and the main writer for the TRMS blog. Benen asserted that chief justice John Roberts, who wrote the majority opinion, “did the GOP an enormous favor -- had the court created systemic chaos, and scrapped benefits for millions of red-state families, Republicans would have confronted an incredible mess they were woefully unprepared to clean up. Worse, there’s a big election coming up, and the GOP was poised to be on the hook for hurting a lot of people out of nothing but spite.”
By Matthew Balan | June 25, 2015 | 12:39 PM EDT
Thursday's CNN Newsroom hyped the Supreme Court's decision that again upheld ObamaCare as a "huge win for the President of the United States," as Wolf Blitzer put it. Gloria Borger and John King tied the Court decision to Congress passing the President's fast-track trade legislation earlier in the week. Borger trumpeted, "You have trade legislation being approved – huge win for the President. You have this reaffirmation of ObamaCare...huge for his legacy." King added, "This may well be the best week of his second term."
By Jeffrey Meyer | June 25, 2015 | 11:58 AM EDT
Following the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in favor of ObamaCare on Thursday, ABC News quickly touted the victory for the Obama administration with correspondent Terry Moran declaring “ObamaCare 2, conservatives 0 is the score right now.” The ABC reporter went on, in the 10 AM EDT hour special, to hype how "once again its Chief Justice John Roberts crushing the hopes of conservatives, upholding a key section of the ObamaCare, the Affordable Care Act.”
By Jeffrey Meyer | June 25, 2015 | 9:42 AM EDT
On Thursday, the “Big Three” (ABC, CBS, and NBC) network morning shows all touted President Obama confronting an LGBT activist who heckled him at a White House event on Wednesday but only ABC’s Good Morning America was the only network morning show to cover the highly anticipated Supreme Court cases regarding ObamaCare and gay marriage.