Gruber 'Stupidity' Scandal Implicates The Press, Too ...........................................................................................................................................................
11/19/2014
Media Bias:
What does it take for reporters to pursue a scandal story these days? Apparently, more than video proof of lying and obfuscation by top officials to get a massive entitlement enacted. But don't call them partisan.
Few political scandals are as tailor-made for television as the one involving the recently unearthed videos of ObamaCare architect and Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist Jonathan Gruber.
First you have Gruber, a guy paid $400,000 to design ObamaCare, admitting on tape that lawmakers purposely misled the public to get the bill passed, and counted on the "stupidity" of the American people not to notice.
Up until Tuesday night, when ABC ended its silence, CBS was the only network to mention Gruber on its nightly news program. As of this writing, NBC's Nightly News still hasn't broken its Gruber embargo, according to the Media Research Center NBC did have time enough Tuesday night for a report on how the share of homes with two-car garages could drop by 2040.
And while other mainstream outlets have covered the story, they've been perfunctory, or written in a way that casts Gruber's revelations purely in light of how they've helped the GOP's anti-ObamaCare crusade.
Not only have Gruber's comments been treated as if they never happened, the TV networks haven't shown any interest in the next round of Gruber stories — in which the White House and Democrats made bald-faced lies about their connections to Gruber.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for one, claimed she had no idea who Gruber was, although she is on tape from five years before praising his expertise.
And President Obama himself, in answer to the one question he's gotten on the matter — from a Fox News reporter — brushed Gruber off as "some adviser."
That's despite the fact that Gruber had been to the White House nearly two dozen times during the ObamaCare debate. And he was prominently featured in a 2012 Obama campaign ad — from the Obama-Biden "Truth Team" — saying how he'd helped the president craft ObamaCare. And he is someone from whom Obama once said he stole many ideas.
news.investors.com |
