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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (8246)	8/13/2009 5:00:22 PM
From: longnshort	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 42652

About half of the smokers in America quit smoking. Did health care costs go down ?

To: Lane3 who wrote (8246)	8/13/2009 5:15:04 PM
From: TimF	Respond to of 42652

Some of the steps government (in this case mostly state or local government) took against smokers I opposed (and still do). I'd have even more problem with similar steps on the obesity front where it isn't a simple matter of pushing against tobacco but would require more complex intervention. As for a statement that obesity kills, well I believe the government has stated at least that its harmful. But the "stop contributing to the problem" might be modestly fruitful (and I don't think any government action is likely to be very fruitful, but nibbling at the edges could help at the margin, and I'd be for reducing the interventions that probably contribute to obesity, even if it turns out they really don't, just on the ground of reducing government intervention. I agree with inode its more an issue of the bully pulpit and public education (and even here I think there should be some limits, both from diminishing returns of bombarding us with the message, as well as the general annoyance)

To: Lane3 who wrote (8246)	8/13/2009 5:49:49 PM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 42652

Playing a Doctor at a Townhall (h/t Brumar) Houston bloggers on the ball. I just wanted to make sure that you guys were aware of a little bit of a controversy here in our own little corner of the world in Houston that has been making it's way around the net. You may have seen on the news last night the rudeness of Shelia Jackson Lee taking a phone call as a citizen was asking a question at her townhall on healthcare, but that's not the controversy. On Aug. 11th our own Houston Chronicle displayed a picture of Shelia Jackson Lee hugging a woman who had asked a question at the townhall as well, but her question was in full support of the health care bill. The woman was identified as "Dr. Roxana Mayer, a pediatric primary care physician." Turns out, she isn't a doctor at all though. She had identified herself to the Chonicle that way though. Patterico, a lawyer and LA blogger smelled something fishy, found her on MySpace, saw that she was clearly not a doctor, and e-mailed her to ask her to make sure. She did e-mail back and admit to the lie. It seems she was also an Obama delegate (actually true), which she also told the Chronicle, but the reporter failed to mention that little fact about her. So, here we have someone asking a question, giving favor in support of the health care bill, posing as a doctor to give more credibility to her support. When in reality she was an Obama delegate and NOT a doctor. After the plants at Obama's townhalls, and now this, it's beyond amusing and ironic that the Democrats accuse the Tea Parties of being "manufactured." You guys are shameless. Update: Gee, I'm wonder if she was paid. It seems craigslist across the country are offering paid jobs to support health care reform. You really can't make this stuff up. Update: It seems the Chronicle has removed the "pediatric primary care physician" from beneath the photo, but with no correction (scroll for it). Come on! note: Other local bloggers covering this story: LoneStarTimes They have all kinds of good stuff. Keep scrolling. And bloghouston.net. blogs.chron.com Another Chron adventure in bad journalism (updated) It has not been a very good week or so for the Houston Chronicle. Recall that the newspaper recently violated their own letters policy by running two letters by Andrew Prieditis within several days. As it turns out, Prieditis apparently doesn't even live in Houston, and had the same letter about Sarah Palin published in several U.S. newspapers, portraying himself as a resident of those cities. Indeed, he has had letters published in newspapers all over the world, claiming to be a resident of each newspaper's city. A cursory google search could have headed off this embarrassment, but that didn't seem to happen. On Tuesday, Richard Connelly posted that both a reporter and editor for one of the Chronicle neighborhood editions seemed to have some real problems with the basics of journalism. The Chronicle's fact-checking/vetting has taken an even bigger hit with today's definitive reporting by the Lone Star Times that a woman who spoke in favor of health care reform at Rep. Sheila Jackson's Lee's town hall Tuesday and who was identified by the Houston Chronicle as a pediatric primary care physician turns out not to have been a doctor at all. I emailed Chronicle reporter Cyndi Horswell early Wednesday afternoon about "Dr. Roxana Mayer" (as she had been identified in the story), basically asking Horswell if she knew where Mayer practiced medicine or where she was licensed, since my search of the Texas Medical Board database didn't turn up any physician by that name licensed in this state. Horswell never responded to that email. Horswell did, however, respond to a similar query from Bramanti. Clearly, neither she nor any Chron editors bothered to do any verification of not-doctor Mayer's details. "This is the information that the woman gave at the meeting," Horsewell emailed Bramanti. "I would hate to think someone misrepresented themselves. She also told me that she had been an Obama state delegate," Horswell concluded. People misrepresent themselves all the time. That's why professional journalists are supposed to verify key information. Indeed, the Chronicle gave every impression that they had vetted not-doctor Mayer's background. Here's the telling excerpt from their reporting: One supporter, Dr. Roxana Mayer, a physician who does not live in Jackson Lee's district, praised the reform plan for overhauling a broken system. “I don't know what there is in the bill that creates such panic,” she said. Had the Chronicle simply described her as "a woman who identified herself as a physician," that would have been bad enough -- but the newspaper instead gave credence to what turned out to be a completely fabricated story. Earlier this year, some Chronicle suit ordered all references to this blog removed from Chron.com. Now that Lone Star Times has exposed the newspaper's fact-checking as nonexistent, we suppose they might be next to be banished from Chron.com. Wouldn't it be much nicer if some Chron suit could wave a magic wand and just as easily make all their junk journalism disappear? It might even improve the bottom line of the ever shrinking enterprise. * We emailed the Chronicle about their letters policy and their vetting, but their reader-rep-by-committee didn't deign to answer our questions. UPDATE: The shenanigans also drew the attention of Patterico, who is not impressed from afar by Houston's Hearst daily. Trust us, the local view is worse! UPDATE 2: And now, Chron.com has changed the erroneous reporting on both their story and their photo with no formal correction or indication the text has been changed. That's whitewash journalism, Chron-style, and it's dishonest. bloghouston.net Lone Star Times has two good entries on the Sheila Jackson Lee townhall plant - lots of pics: lonestartimes.com lonestartimes.com