I want to address the coverage of the shutdown using a few videos. Let’s begin with this skit from the folks at Jimmy Kimmel Live. I acknowledge that this video was exploited for its comedic value and the polling is hardly scientific here. Still, polls consistently show that most Americans approve of the provisions in the Affordable Care Act, even if they respond negatively to the name “Obamacare.”
Photo by fakezzz/iStock / Getty Images
What does this have to do with the budget that keeps the government running? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! The President has said, and he is correct in doing so, that the shutdown of the government doesn’t affect the rollout of the ACA one iota. Exchanges opened on Tuesday and, in typical government fashion, were unable to handle the number of visitors at the website. Anyone who’s ever been to a DMV was probably not surprised that the government’s health care portal was crowded, irritating and slow.
Back to the issue at hand, though: the only reason that we are talking about the ACA in connection with the budget is because House Republicans decided to tie the delay or defunding of the law to the continued operation of the government. That’s not a partisan talking point; that’s simply the truth. Dan Froomkin writes that “the political media’s aversion to doing anything that might be seen as taking sides — combined with its obsession with process — led them to actively obscure the truth in their coverage of the votes. If you did not already know what this was all about, reading the news would not help you understand.” He goes on to say that “the shutdown is not generalized dysfunction or gridlock or stalemate. It is aberrational behavior by a political party that is willing to take extreme and potentially damaging action to get its way. And by not calling it what it is, the political press is enabling it. We need a more fearless media.”
Responding to strong criticism like this and from public anger over both the shutdown and the behavior of our elected representatives, some journalists have decided to get tougher. For the most part, it has not gone well. Here’s Carol Costello with Rep. Todd Rokita (R-IN) on CNN. I applaud Costello’s attempt to hold Rokita accountable, but she wasn’t prepared to do so. Rokita says several incorrect things and skews the facts fairly openly. Costello should have corrected them instead of arguing. He says they’ve sent many proposals to the Senate, Costello should have said that all of those proposals include provisions for defunding or delaying the ACA. Ask him if he supports a clean CR. When an anchor argues with a guest, it supports the idea that there are always two sides to everything, that absolutely nothing in politics can be established as fact. Don’t argue. Just counter untruths with truths and get a response.
Here’s another train wreck. Thomas Roberts is talking to RNC Chair Reince Priebus about the shutdown. And again, Roberts chooses to argue with Priebus. It becomes a contest in who can be heard above the other and by the end, it’s almost unwatchable. Here, I’m less concerned about facts and that’s because Reince Priebus is the Chair of the RNC. His job, quite literally, is to represent the party line. You expect talking points from him, and that’s what Roberts got. It’s a bit asinine to then argue that he’s only giving you talking points.
Finally, here’s a link to the TV interview that really shows you how to do this right:
Oh, sorry. I couldn’t find one.