It took nine days, but ABC and NBC finally covered the controversial videos of ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber making disparaging remarks about the American voters. Since the first video surfaced, CBS had been the only “big three” (ABC, CBS, and NBC) network to cover the Gruber video, but on Sunday, November 16 ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos and NBC’s Meet the Press briefly mentioned the videos. However, as of this writing, ABC and NBC’s morning and evening newscasts have yet to mention the Gruber controversy once.
Medical Insurance
By Curtis Houck | November 15, 2014 | 6:06 PM EST
As of Saturday afternoon and a full eight days after the first video of ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber surfaced, major broadcast networks ABC and NBC and the Los Angeles Times have persisted in keeping their audiences in the dark on this story.
Over the course of Friday evening and Saturday morning, news outlets that previously had ignored Gruber arrived on the scene included the Associated Press (AP), the print edition of The New York Times, and USA Today. The New York Times posted a second entry on one of its blog sites (known as The Upshot) and published its first print story on A12 of Saturday’s newspaper.
By Tom Blumer | November 15, 2014 | 9:14 AM EST
Linda Greenhouse covered the Supreme Court for the New York Times for 30 years until accepting a downsizing buyout in 2008. She continues to write bi-weekly columns there.
Greenhouse is absolutely appalled that the King v. Burwell lawsuit has gotten to the Supreme Court. As will be seen, she's also quite selective in her outrage.
By Curtis Houck | November 14, 2014 | 5:34 PM EST
During her Fox Business Network (FBN) show on Friday afternoon, Melissa Francis told viewers that she “was silenced” by executives at CNBC when worked there after she criticized ObamaCare on-air and told viewers that the “math of ObamaCare simply didn’t work.”
Speaking in regards to what ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber said about relying on the “stupidity” of voter and the need for lying to get the law passed, Francis opined that while: “It is shocking, but it actually doesn’t surprise me because when I was at CNBC, I pointed out to my viewers that the math of ObamaCare simply didn’t work. Not the politics by the way, just the basic math and when I did that, I was silenced.”
By NB Staff | November 13, 2014 | 10:58 PM EST
On Thursday night, the Fox News Channel’s (FNC) Special Report with Bret Baier spotlighted the latest study from the Media Research Center (MRC) and Newsbusters, which exposed the almost no coverage of ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber telling an audience in a 2013 video that “lack of transparency” and “the stupidity of the American voter” were critical in the law’s passage.
During the show’s “Grapevine” segment, host Bret Baier noted that, while FNC and his program “feel this is something our viewers deserve to know,” the networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC “apparently, disagree.”
By Curtis Houck | November 13, 2014 | 9:49 PM EST
As ABC and NBC continued to censor any mention of the disparaging comments made by ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber from their Thursday night newscasts, CBS aired second story on Gruber with this one (and the other coming from Thursday’s CBS This Morning) airing on the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley.
While the report by CBS News national correspondent Wyatt Andrews covered what Gruber said, how Democrats and Republicans have responded, and that he was a paid White House adviser on ObamaCare, Andrews did not attempt to point out the contradiction House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi createdThursday when she denied ever having heard of Gruber when she had in fact praised him in 2009.
By Curtis Houck | November 12, 2014 | 6:24 PM EST
During a discussion on MSNBC’s The Cycle about the disparaging comments ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber made about the law’s passage and the “stupidity” of voters, New York Times writer and substitute Cycle co-host Josh Barro sought to defend him by blasting the expectations that Americans have about health care as “completely incoherent” and lying was the only solution to make them happy. Barro told fellow panelists and guest Lauren Fox of National Journal that “what drives me crazy about this story” was that: “Jonathan Gruber was right. Public opinion on health care policy is just completely incoherent.”
By Randy Hall | November 12, 2014 | 6:10 PM EST
This week has been a busy time for conservative icon Glenn Beck. During his Monday program, Beck admitted to his audience at TheBlaze.com that he had been suffering from a rare neurological disease for five years, but after undergoing hormone therapy, electric stimulation and other treatments -- not to mention relying on his faith in God -- the disease has been reversed, and he's on his way to an almost total recovery.
Then on Tuesday, MSNBC's Ed Schultz stated that Beck had “access and opportunity” to get the best treatment possible and declared: “I hope that his story motivates those who think that ObamaCare is bad, that maybe they will rethink” their opposition to the Affordable Care Act.
By Mark Finkelstein | November 12, 2014 | 8:51 AM EST
Kudos to Mika Brzezinski for admitting the truth: if Jonathan Gruber were a Republican, the MSM "would be exploding." Instead, noted Mika on today's Morning Joe, the MSM has been silent on the Gruber story, with only conservative sites [ed.: notably including Newsbusters] covering it.
Mika contrasted the current quietness on the MSM-Gruber front with the media "firestorm" that erupted when David Stockman made his infamous allegations about Reagonomics.
By Tom Blumer | November 11, 2014 | 4:31 PM EST
David Weigel's writeup this afternoon at Bloomberg Politics ("Meet the Mild-Mannered Investment Advisor Who's Humiliating the Administration Over Obamacare") is about the guy who has found at least two incriminating videos of Jonathan Gruber revealing the true intentions behind the Affordable Care Act. In some respects, it's well done and interesting.
What's not well done is Bloomberg's choice of the pull quote to highlight:
Nets Ignore Video of ObamaCare Architect Crediting Law’s Passage on ‘the Stupidity of the American Voter’
By Curtis Houck | November 10, 2014 | 10:03 PM EST On Friday, the group American Commitment uploaded a video to YouTube of ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber telling a group of healthcare economists in 2013 that the “lack of transparency” regarding the bill’s contents and “the stupidity of the American voter” were critical to its passage through Congress in 2010.
Since the video was uploaded, the major English and Spanish broadcast networks of ABC, CBS, NBC, Univision, and Telemundo have chosen not to cover this devastating video on either their morning or evening newscasts. During the day on Monday alone, Gruber’s comments were covered on cable news channels CNN and the Fox News Channel (FNC) in addition to news sites ranging from The Daily Signal to Forbes to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
By Matthew Balan | November 10, 2014 | 6:14 PM EST
On Monday, NPR's health blog touted a pro-ObamaCare item from Kaiser Health News, which is a program of the left-leaning Kaiser Family Foundation (and a partner of the public radio network). Journalist Mary Agnes Carey offered a "quick checklist" for those who "shop for coverage on the health law's online exchanges," since the open enrollment period for the exchanges begins on November 15, 2014.