We expect better from PBS and Frontline
Recently, Frontline aired “Obama’s Deal,” which reviewed the health care debate over the last year. It included a segment that featured single-payer advocates arrested in the Senate Finance Committee protesting the exclusion of single-payer witnesses from the proceedings. While the show exposed some of the sordid deals struck by congressional lawmakers and the White House with the health insurance industry and Big Pharma it left out any mention of single payer health care.
While Frontline extensively interviewed Dr. Margaret Flowers of PNHP, they neglected to broadcast the very reason that she and others risked arrest: to get a single payer advocate to testify in the Senate Finance Committee hearings on health care. Frontline, rather, depicted these advocates as President Obama’s “liberal base” leaving out any discussion about why nurses, doctors, and every-day Americans would risk being arrested by Federal police. Of course, there was also no mention of nationwide protests at insurance companies throughout the country.
So far, Frontline is claiming that their purpose was to describe how Obama achieved the new health law. Of course, the decision to leave out single payer was made by Obama and Democratic leaders early in the process. That was a significant strategic decision – especially since single payer is the most popular reform among Americans, doctors and nurses. Why didn’t Frontline examine that decision? Why didn’t they explain that Obama decided to remove the approach most Americans wanted? Isn’t it misleading to not mention the exclusion of single payer?
Please let Frontline know you think single payer should have been included. You can act now and write to the ombudsman at PBS to protest this exclusion of the single-payer viewpoint. It is wrong for Congress and the media to exclude the most evidence-based solution to our health crisis – the only approach that would cover all Americans and control costs.
The exclusion of single-payer showed that right from the outset Obama had made a deal with the health insurance, drug, and hospital industries.
We expect better from PBS and Frontline. Contact the ombudsman today!
For some ideas for your comments to PBS, see Kevin Zeese’s (Exec. Dir. of Prosperity Agenda) response. And, you can read Margaret Flowers article on the show.
Thanks.
Katie, Margaret and Kevin
P.S. You can hear Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese discussing the new health law and where we go for her to get real reform by visiting www.BackboneCampaign.org.
