Month: August 2009
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NBC’s flawed health care misperception poll
NBC released a health care poll (PDF) last night that deputy political director Mark Murray summarized in an article with the subhed “Misperceptions abound on president’s health overhaul initiative”: Majorities in the poll believe the plans would give health insurance coverage to illegal immigrants; would lead to a government takeover of the health system; and
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Birther myth strong among Colorado GOP
An update on state polling on the Obama birth certificate myth — Public Policy Polling has released a preview of a new poll showing that 43% of Colorado Republicans think President Obama was not born in this country and an additional 24% were unsure. Those numbers are comparable to the numbers that PPP found in
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Manjoo: Obama should ignore “death panels”
Slate’s Farhad Manjoo has written a provocative new article arguing that the Obama administration won’t be able to knock down the “death panel” myth and should stop talking about it entirely: [H]e’s going after folks in the middle—people who’ve heard about the death panels but aren’t sure what to believe. Will his defense work on
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Backsliding on “death panel” fact-checks
In a post on fact-checking of the “death panel” myth last week, I noted the tendency of media outlets to revert to “he said,” “she said” reporting on false or misleading claims that they have previously debunked. Since then, Media Matters has flagged two more leading news outlets that have reverted to treating the claim
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Mickey Edwards: Wrong on parties
In a LA Times op-ed a couple of weeks ago, former Republican Congressman Mickey Edwards joined the long list of current and former legislators who bemoan the end of bipartisanship. Like almost all of these members, Edwards fails to understand that the mid-century peak in bipartisanship was a historical aberration. Once the parties realigned on
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Goldberg’s strained defense of “death panel”
NRO’s Jonah Goldberg objects to the New York Times story on the “death panel” myth that I praised earlier today (and mocks me as “think[ing] the Times story is just frick’n awesome, just as it is”): My own question is why the Times couldn’t bother to at least quote Obama’s interview with . . .
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CJR on correcting misinformation
CJR’s Greg Marx has just published an in-depth examination of the difficulty of correcting misinformation that features my research with Jason Reifler (PDF) and my thoughts on the current health care debate. Here’s how it begins: Pushing back against political misinformation has lately become a growth industry. The Obama administration is trying to counter false
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NYT names and shames McCaughey et al.
Today the New York Times joins ABC News and the New York Daily News in shaming Betsy McCaughey (along with the Washington Times and the American Spectator) for her role in spreading misinformation about health care reform proposals in Congress: False ‘Death Panel’ Rumor Has Some Familiar Roots By JIM RUTENBERG and JACKIE CALMES The
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PolitiFact: Myths and facts on health care
The Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking site Politifact has published an exceptionally clear overview of the health care reform debate that summarizes the key provisions of the legislation now pending in Congress as well as some of the key points of contention between the parties. They’ve also published a compilation of the ten most significant fact-checking items
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Cornyn hedges on “death panel” myth
It’s sad to see Senator John Cornyn protecting his right flank by hedging his rhetoric on the “death panel” myth, which he said is “probably an exaggeration”: Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas) said the death panel allegation is “probably an exaggeration of what is actually in the plans.” But he said it stems from fears