White House, Media Coordinating Positive Obamacare Stories

Are journalists now working at the behest of the Obama administration when it comes to reporting on health care coverage?  

According to a recent report by Politico, the White House is seeking to stem the tide of disastrous Obamacare reports, instead ‘looking to spread some good news.’  And what better way to accomplish this than through an ever-obedient ally in the media?

Here is the opening excerpt:

If Democrats get their way, the next phase of the Obamacare wars will see something unusual: a flood of success stories.

The White House, Democratic lawmakers and advocacy organizations will launch a campaign this week to highlight real-life experiences under the Affordable Care Act — tales so compelling that they help drive up enrollment, marginalize Republican repeal efforts and erase memories of this fall’s HealthCare.gov debacle.

The Politico article ran early Sunday morning.  By the end of the day CNN, like a child opening presents on Christmas day, released a series of six articles purportedly from people who were anxiously looking forward to Obamacare kicking in on January 1st.  

The series titled, I signed up for Obamacare!”, included a sub-heading simply declaring that, “Many Americans are thrilled that their Obamacare insurance plans kick in on Jan. 1.”

Not just happy, but “thrilled,” you see.

The series of articles were posted by Tami Luhby, quickly tweeted by CNN’s Executive Editor, Ram Ramgopal, and subsequently retweeted by Obama administration Director of Progressive Media and Online Response, Jesse Lee.

Kristinn Taylor at Gateway Pundit wrote:

The appearance of coordination on the CNN article is reminiscent of a similar set-up by the Obama administration and the AP on another article promoting Obamacare that was reported at The Gateway Pundit in October.

Once again, it looks like the Democrat-media complex is up to its old tricks.

But the tricks run even deeper than simply the coordinated sharing of a barrage of pro-Obamacare articles.  It starts with the reporter who posted CNN’s positive spin articles, Luhby, who was recently chosen to attend a symposium designed to provide journalists with – and I quote – “specialized education in health care reporting”.

We covered the symposium in early November:

As the month of October has rolled on and stories regarding the train wreck that is Obamacare mount, one has to wonder when President Obama’s media allies will come to the rescue and skew reality on health care reporting.

The answer may be … now.

The Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) is once again teaming up with a private U.S. foundation known as the Commonwealth Fund. The Fund, a self-described ‘progressive’ organization, is currently led by David Blumenthal, former senior health adviser to the Obama campaign.  The group makes little to no secret of their support for Obama’s universal health care plan. 

Luhby, who is listed as one of the participating Fellows, received a special invite to health care training sessions that were self-described by SABEW as “offer(ing) up story suggestions and reporting tips.”  

What could possibly be biased about an organization being run by the President’s former ‘health information technology czar’, offering up story suggestions to members of the media?

The one-sided information is plentiful.  Luhby has consistently used the slanted works of the Commonwealth Fund in her articles, dating all the way back to the President’s first election in 2008.  SABEW provides reporters with a page on their site titled, Reporter Resources from the Commonwealth Fund, which include several links to the organization’s data, as well as a “perspective” on enrollment written by Blumenthal himself.  And in a previous session hosted by Blumenthal’s Commonwealth Fund, reporters were instructed to tell small business owners that, “There’s no negative here for you … There’s only upside.”

In addition to his work on the Obama campaign, David Blumenthal served as chief health adviser to the Dukakis campaign in the ’80s, and was later appointed to the Administration as “national coordinator for health information technology” in 2009.

With over 3,200 members, including entire business wings at major newspapers, the SABEW’s acceptance of training from this clearly partisan group is questionable.  Are we now seeing the coordinated propaganda being implemented at CNN?

Follow Rusty @rustyweiss74

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