The Los Angeles Times: We Don’t Need To Talk About Grubergate, After All, We Gave You All Of Those Palin Emails
[guest post by Dana]
As JVW pointed out this weekend, the Los Angeles Times finally acknowledged Grubergate…in the Sports section and as a introduction to an op-ed about the NFL.
This weekend, I emailed the LAT Readers’ Rep to ask why there has been, thus far, no reporting on the six Gruber videos:
Ms. Edgar,
It has been a week since the first videos of Jonathan Gruber discussing the behind-the-scenes motivations and decisions regarding Obamacare were released. Why has the LAT not reported on a story that has blown up so rapidly? The president responded to Gruber’s assertions today from Australia, and still nothing from the LAT. As the Washington Post, New York Times and Wall St. Journal have all been giving print space to these important revelations, why is the LAT ignoring what is an issue of great importance as well as impacting millions? I would think your newspaper would be right on top of this in your commitment to keeping readers well informed. Unfortunately, what it looks like to readers is that there is a partisanship at work here and that the LAT is giving cover to this administration. Please explain to me how this assumption is incorrect.
I look forward to hearing back from you.
Tonight I did another search at the LAT for any Grubergate reporting and came up empty-handed. However, ironically, when I searched “Sarah Palin emails”, 48 results popped up! I didn’t scan through all of them, but I did pull up the database the newspaper had set up to catalog 444 Palin emails. Remember that? Readers were even invited to comment and make suggestions at the “Sarah Palin emails: The Alaska archive.” I couldn’t help but think, hm, that’s 444 emails vs. 6 videos. How much effort did it take to read through the emails, catalog them by date, and of course, closely scan them for any salacious tidbits vs. how much effort would it take to post six YouTube videos that revealed we were lied to by this administration and that they counted on our stupidity? I mean, would it really be that exhausting of an effort? Surely their Obamacare would cover any wrist guards necessary for preventing onset Carpal Tunnel from loading the videos. As it stands, I’m sure on this we can agree: this administration will never have to doubt whether they can still count on the LAT.
On a side note, while searching for Grubergate mention, I found an op-ed written by Gruber himself from February 2014. You can read it here. In light of the recent Gruber videos and his comments, the op-ed is post-worthy in itself.
I will keep readers informed when if I hear back from the Readers’ Rep.
–Dana
UPDATE BY PATTERICO: Nice post. Here is the disclosure the L.A. Times made to Gruber’s op-ed:
Jonathan Gruber is a professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a member of the Scholars Strategy Network.
Is that good enough, when the guy was getting paid by the White House to help draft the legislation? I think not.
Hello.
Dana (8e74ce) — 11/17/2014 @ 10:05 pmThe LIBTARD MEDIA isn’t biased, and Jon Lisp-Boy Groooooober, is an EXPERT on Economics. He may win the KRUGMAN award for ass-hattery this year!!
Gus (7cc192) — 11/17/2014 @ 10:09 pmYou could ask the LA Times if they ever found any dirt on Ms. Palin.
AZ Bob (34bb80) — 11/17/2014 @ 10:31 pmBreaking news: Terrorists attack Jerusalem synagogue. 4 dead, 4 seriously wounded.
Milhouse (9d71c3) — 11/17/2014 @ 10:51 pmTwo more years of this crap, too. Does anyone think it will get better?
Kevin M (d91a9f) — 11/17/2014 @ 11:26 pmthis is me, holding my breath.
redc1c4 (2b3c9e) — 11/18/2014 @ 1:00 amThat op-ed is interesting.
steveg (794291) — 11/18/2014 @ 4:35 amGruber repeatedly cites the CBO
to boslster his contentions, but now has undermined the CBO as his dupes; slogging them through tortured phrasing and data, manipulated into justifying Grubers preconceptions.
Gruber says the CBO concluded that unravelling Obamacare would throw 25M out of health care.
Given Grubers history of cynical and dishonest manipulation, I can’t believe the number
well they weren’t really in the content of those emails, it was just about the narrative,
narciso (ee1f88) — 11/18/2014 @ 5:05 amAgain, Democratic operatives with bylines. Their scarcely even pretending anymore.
Art Deco (ee8de5) — 11/18/2014 @ 5:55 amIf dismantling ObamaCare would throw 25,000,000 out of their health insurance, wouldn’t at least that many have to had enrolled? As is, closer to 7M have been forced into ObamaCare, the bulk of which was MedicAid expansion.
JD (285732) — 11/18/2014 @ 6:02 amOff topic, and I apologize, but is it the case that everyone in the exchanges has to re-enroll this year, to avoid pretty huge premium increases. If they allow it to automatically re-enroll, there will be some serious sticker shock.
JD (285732) — 11/18/2014 @ 6:09 amTwenty years ago, I wasted my time complaining to the editors at the LA Slimes about the weak coverage that they had on the Clintons and their misbehavior while governing Arkansas. They told me in effect to go pound sand. Nothing really changes over there, despite ownership and staff changes. They’ll cover Palin, Cosby, or Cain til the cows come home, but don’t ask ’em about sitting Dem politicos.
Dirty Old Man (b85aa0) — 11/18/2014 @ 6:14 amAnd another one bites the dust. This is how the CBO describes itself:
Add the CBO to the list of governmental support organizations whose putative usefulness and credibility have been shot to heck by this administration– and by people like Gruber who’ve shown how easy it is to manipulate the CBO figures and results. Garbage in, garbage out, baby.
elissa (63644d) — 11/18/2014 @ 6:22 am1: if you think Ocare has had a bad effect so far, just wait for the illegitimate and
illegal waivers to expire.
2: Politics aside, isn’t it amazing that there was absolutely nothing in all those Palin
seeRpea (09793f) — 11/18/2014 @ 6:32 amemails to criticize her? To me it just go further to show that she is one of the more decent
people around and kudos to her for getting out of the political office arena.
As Phyllis Schlafly showed, you don’t need a political office to have major impact.
13. And the credibility of Liberals in America, in every corner, niche, coffee klutch, , clubhouse, smoking and powder room, at every board, is blown to kingdom come.
Government is not a solution, it is the problem.
DNF (3b2963) — 11/18/2014 @ 6:53 amhttp://www.wnd.com/2014/11/limbaugh-unloads-obama-is-a-sociopathic-liar/
Well, duh!
DNF (3b2963) — 11/18/2014 @ 6:59 amGovernment is not a solution, it is the problem.
No, state institutions are a solution to problems for which command-and-control is germane.
Art Deco (ee8de5) — 11/18/2014 @ 7:02 amGruber is more or less repeating Pelosi’s argument about how Obamacare will allow a person to quit their job to become a poet.
http://youtu.be/VmL37TcBtpY
Denver Todd (07fc6b) — 11/18/2014 @ 7:26 amThe LA Times is not covering Grubergate because SHUT UP !
Mike K (90dfdc) — 11/18/2014 @ 7:33 amI’m starting to think that journalists should register as lobbyists.
Simon Jester (c8876d) — 11/18/2014 @ 7:39 amUPDATE BY PATTERICO: Nice post. Here is the disclosure the L.A. Times made to Gruber’s op-ed:
Is that good enough, when the guy was getting paid by the White House to help draft the legislation? I think not.
Patterico (9c670f) — 11/18/2014 @ 7:40 amGruber reminds me of the very smart teachers pet.
steveg (794291) — 11/18/2014 @ 7:50 amNot enough to be smart… he has to f*** with everyone.
Next, because he’ll feel all hurt and angry about Obama and Pelosi turning on him he’ll go over to the dark side and start advising people how to circumvent Obamacare.
Sorta like Dick Morris
The LA Times will cover the Gruber videos when Michael (“Half-Truth”)Hiltzik, former English student and its “business writer,” is shown the door (assuming he can fit through one), in favor of a “real” business writer.
Or when it realizes that using its cartoonist, David Horsey, to write “political Commentary” only reminds easterners and westerners alike why we pay a premium for the New York Times in our own city.
Or when it realizes we pay a premium for the New York Times in our own city, because the LAT is filled with pontificating gasbags instead of news.
So not in this lifetime.
Harcourt Fenton Mudd (5e0a82) — 11/18/2014 @ 9:07 amIt’s ridiculous, but it works. “Faux News” is basically taken as gospel among people who do not consume any media that does not have a left-wing slant. Low-information voters whose friends are either all lefties or not politically engaged never even hear of these scandals.
Problematically for them, no amount of media bias can change the effects on people’s wallets and the national fisc. You simply cannot will a good law into being, or a bad law into a good law. The whole scheme will come crashing down regardless, with one side having been dragged through the mud for trying to warn people.
Call us Cassandra.
bridget (5ed8f8) — 11/18/2014 @ 12:29 pm4. All 4 dead were Rabbis, I think well-known.
All 4 U.S. citizens (three dual Israeli, 1 dual British)
One was a grandson of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, who was, as the New York Times puts it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/19/world/jerusalem-synagogue-attack-rabbi-moshe-twersky.html
None of them probably endorsed the idea of going onto the Temple Mount.
Sammy Finkelman (a248bd) — 11/18/2014 @ 1:58 pmCorrection: 3 were U.S. citizens, one UK. I’m not sure how well known the ones besides Rabbi Moshe Twersky were. And it’s updated now to 5 dead.
The New Republic says:
That’s wrong.
In fact, only politics can explain it.
Not our kind of politics, but politics.
Yes, hatred, but the hatred and lies doesn’t just happen.
The thought has occured to me that this might be part of an attempt by Iran to discourage Israel from attacking nuclear sites afterr November 24.
Sammy Finkelman (a248bd) — 11/18/2014 @ 2:15 pmKeystone pipeline voted down in the Senate 59 to 41.
ropelight (395178) — 11/18/2014 @ 3:25 pmYes, ropelight, the fix was in. But the real question is, will the stupid LA voters be sucked in by that little song and dance long enough to vote for Landrieu?
Or, if they weren’t fool by that Potemkin show vote will their little pea brains with their short attention spans even retain the information long enough to remember they’re supposed to feel insulted until the run-off election in December?
Steve57 (c4b0b3) — 11/18/2014 @ 3:33 pmwell Louisiana has shown some more sense lately, I’ve dubbed it ‘the wiley Canadian menace’
narciso (ee1f88) — 11/18/2014 @ 4:03 pmI did a search for Valeria Plame as opposed to Benghazi and had a similar experience. The MSM will tell us when and what to worry about, I don’t think so?
EricStoner (98d109) — 11/18/2014 @ 4:45 pmkeep on looking for the obama khalidi video also
bookworm (b6e5c4) — 11/18/2014 @ 5:18 pm