ObamaCare: Lazy WaPo bloggers relay bogus Dem talking point
[Posted by Karl]
Fisking is so some other year, but the latest hackery from Ezra Klein contains a larger point:
For some time, I’ve been trying to find good polling from the passage of Medicare. According to Greg Sargent, though, the Democrats beat me to it…
Per Sargent, the Dem PR contains polling numbers from the 1960s that underscore how controversial Medicare was in the months leading up to its historic passage. But the numbers are mostly from JFK’s failed effort in 1962, with one Harris poll from “after Lyndon Johnson was elected” showing minority support.
However, the Dems cribbed this data from Jennifer Agiesta at the Washington Post — the same company that directly employs Klein and owns the site where Sargent blogs. Indeed, Sargent links to Agiesta’s post. You will be shocked to discover that the Dems — and Klein and Sargent — left out what Agiesta ultimately reported from the same Harris poll:
Asked another way, 62 percent said they favored “President Johnson’s program of medical care for the aged under Social Security.” A smaller majority, 56 percent, backed the American Medical Association’s alternative plan, which would have “everyone who could afford it covered by private health insurance” and “those who couldn’t afford it …covered under a government health plan.”
In short, about as many people wanted Medicare then as oppose ObamaCare now. The Dems’ talking point is a joke. And while Klein claims he was looking for this data for some time, it took me less than a minute to find the earlier WaPo piece on Google.
Ezra Klein: Disingenuous partisan hack or incompetent researcher — you be the judge!
—
Update: Megan McArdle looks at the Gallup data on Medicare to conclude that “it wasn’t passed despite terrible polling, with a controversial process, by a political party that was tanking in popularity thanks to a grinding recession.” I just think it’s worse that Klein and Sargent didn’t bother to note that the Democrats’ own source — and their own colleague — made the same basic point.
–Karl
The same twisting of information is going on at the LA Times.
Yesterday the lead story was that 25 percent of Californians have no health care insurance. No where in the story was there mention of what percentage of these persons are here illegally.
Today, they tried to say that Republicans have used this gimmick to deem a bill passed. But they don’t look very hard at the difference in bills where it did happened and the massive health care bill pending.
Alta Bob (f57a20) — 3/17/2010 @ 9:59 am“…Ezra Klein: Disingenuous partisan hack or incompetent researcher…”
Yes!
AD - RtR/OS! (bdaa22) — 3/17/2010 @ 10:26 amDisingenuous Partisan Hack for $200, Alex.
[note: fished from spam filter. –Stashiu]
Official Internet Data Office (3def0e) — 3/17/2010 @ 10:52 amNo different from the sophistry we see daily from the likes of Muran and imadouchebag – they make incredible amounts of erroneous statements of alleged fact without a scintilla of evidence provided. Give them this, though – at least they’re consistent.
Dmac (ca1d8c) — 3/17/2010 @ 10:58 am“…at least they’re consistent.”
So are flies.
AD - RtR/OS! (bdaa22) — 3/17/2010 @ 11:03 amAll they do is eat, $hit, and bother people.
Dmac,
I would say it’s Greenwaldian blogging — link to a source that ultimately refutes the point the blogger is making.
Karl (f07e38) — 3/17/2010 @ 11:04 am[…] The Soft Bigotry of the Democrats abortion legislation Patterico’s Pontifications: ObamaCare: Lazy WaPo bloggers relay bogus Dem talking point and The Constitutionality of the Slaughter Solution and Health Care 101 and Democrats may have […]
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“Lack of Political Guts”… Jack Cafferty at CNN Says Pelosi’s Slaughter Solution Is Beyond Sleazy (video) « Frugal Café Blog Zone (a66042) — 3/17/2010 @ 11:19 am[…] reading: Patterico’s Pontifications: ObamaCare: Lazy WaPo bloggers relay bogus Dem talking point and The Constitutionality of the Slaughter Solution and Health Care 101 and Democrats may have […]
“Lack of Political Guts”… Jack Cafferty at CNN Says Pelosi’s Slaughter Solution Is Beyond Sleazy (video) « Frugal Café Blog Zone (a66042) — 3/17/2010 @ 11:19 am[…] reading: Patterico’s Pontifications: ObamaCare: Lazy WaPo bloggers relay bogus Dem talking point and The Constitutionality of the Slaughter Solution and Health Care 101 and Democrats may have […]
“Lack of Political Guts”… Jack Cafferty at CNN Says Pelosi’s Slaughter Solution Is Beyond Sleazy (video) « Frugal Café Blog Zone (a66042) — 3/17/2010 @ 11:19 amEvery once in a while the editors at the Washington Post will participate in an hour long chat. In just about every one of these chats, they get a question asking why the partisan hack Ezra Klein and Perlestein are given column space and headings in the business section. The editors are usually honest enough to avoid saying that Klein and Perlesteine are anything other than shills for the Democrats, but also say that as columnists and bloggers in the business section they have a large discretion to write about what they want.
mike (26bc5f) — 3/17/2010 @ 11:21 amWhat I think Klein meant to say when he said he’d been looking for that information, is that he’s been waiting for someone to hand him all the pertinent information on a silver platter so he can suck back a few more badly made mojitos, write a poorly informed post and then go back to his mojitos.
Really, it’s all there if you just read between the lines.
Just like the poll NBC has been touting that has Americans evenly divided on health care. You just make it up and it is so.
Vivian Louise (643333) — 3/17/2010 @ 11:52 amSo are flies.
All they do is eat, $hit, and bother people.
I hope everyone realizes that I wasn’t giving a compliment here – they’re just rote automatons spewing out DNC talking points, ad infinitum. No thought required on their part.
Dmac (ca1d8c) — 3/17/2010 @ 12:01 pmKarl – are you referring to Rick Ellers?
Dmac (ca1d8c) — 3/17/2010 @ 12:03 pm[…] The Soft Bigotry of the Democrats abortion legislation Patterico’s Pontifications: ObamaCare: Lazy WaPo bloggers relay bogus Dem talking point and The Constitutionality of the Slaughter Solution and Health Care 101 and Democrats may have […]
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> Ezra Klein: Disingenuous partisan hack or incompetent researcher — you be the judge!
Ummmm… Both?
.
N Bretagna (79d71d) — 3/17/2010 @ 12:54 pm> Just like the poll NBC has been touting that has Americans evenly divided on health care. You just make it up and it is so.
It’s not lying if you frame the questions correctly, and ignore other relevant info to come out of the same poll:
Courtesy MRC (emphasis added):
=============================================
By a 12 point margin, those asked, in a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey, called “Barack Obama’s health care plan” a “bad idea” (48 percent) over a “good idea” (36 percent). Yet, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams on Tuesday evening skipped that verdict as he declared “people are evenly split” on “the President’s health care reform plan.” From the accompanying graphic, viewers could learn Williams was referring to what people say about enacting it: “pass” (46 percent) vs “don’t pass” (45 percent).
The actual question presented a stark alternative of endorsing the status quo: “Do you think it would be better to pass Barack Obama’s health care plan and make its changes to the health care system or to not pass this plan and keep the current health care system?” Yet the one-point gap was the closest-ever in the poll as “better to not pass this plan, keep current system” grew to 45 percent from 39 percent last September, a trend neither Williams nor Chuck Todd pointed out.
=============================================
Clearly, if you ask a loaded question, you’re going to get a loaded answer.
N Bretagna (79d71d) — 3/17/2010 @ 1:00 pmN Bretagna – an’ jist whit are they yins gettin’ loaded on, jimmy ?
(I couldn’t let your question get off Scots-free (grin))
Alasdair (e7cb73) — 3/17/2010 @ 1:22 pmWhen Klein says he has been looking for the information and cannot find it, he is admitting that not even *he* can stand to read the publication for which he writes !
Alasdair (e7cb73) — 3/17/2010 @ 1:24 pmThe truth has finally come out. Chris Matthews has the scoop. The public doesn’t like the bill because of Fox News.
Mike K (2cf494) — 3/17/2010 @ 1:52 pmIs there any fraud that Democrats won’t engage in on this bill?
SPQR (26be8b) — 3/17/2010 @ 4:38 pm“…they’re just rote automatons spewing out DNC talking points, ad infinitum…” – Dmac
So, they ARE flies!
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Upside-Down World: Pres. Obama Appears on FOX News to Push for His Health Care Monstrosity « Frugal Café Blog Zone (a66042) — 3/17/2010 @ 5:22 pm> The truth has finally come out. Chris Matthews has the scoop. The public doesn’t like the bill because of Fox News.
An utterly truthful statement, and rather clearly so.
Fox News is the only TV outlet that hasn’t been feeding the public the “blarney” (in honor of the day).
IgotBupkis (79d71d) — 3/17/2010 @ 5:31 pm“I just think it’s worse that Klein and Sargent didn’t bother to note that the Democrats’ own source — and their own colleague — made the same basic point.”
Karl… your first mistake was giving these two the benefit of the doubt re: personal integrity/honesty.
GeneralMalaise (d2bf14) — 3/17/2010 @ 5:32 pm“No time to test ’em”
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