Politics - Read at you own risk...

I have been watching and listening to the health care debate over the past few months. I've also been emailing and calling my Senators and congressman to make sure they know my opinion on this extremely important issue. I won't go into the details of why I'm against the type of health care reform being discussed but suffice it to say I am VERY against it. If you have 5 hours to kill you can call me and I'll explain why.

As most of you know I enjoy watching the Sunday News Shows almost as much as I like watching baseball and football games. I know I'll get a liberal view when I watch "This Week", "Meet the Press", and 'Face the Nation". I know I'll get an outrageously liberal viewpoint when I watch the "Chris Matthews Show". I also know I'll get a moderate to conservative view when I watch "Fox News Sunday". I like to watch and listen to the liberal shows to make sure I hear all side of the issues. I think it makes my opinion stronger but it can be very frustrating to me when the hosts of these shows let their liberal views shine through.

On such an important issue as changing the way our health care system functions shouldn't news show hosts try and present a fair, unbiased view of the issue? Maybe I'm naive but that's what I expect.

What I have below is a SMALL, VERY SMALL example of how the main stream media frames the debate. They frame it and influence it by the questions they ask and the questions they don't ask.

Below in red are excepts from the transcripts from Meet the Press. I have also included my comments in yellow. You tell me if our 'Independent Press" asks the questions you need to have answered in order for YOU to make an informed decision on health care reform or...or not.

MTP - DAVID GREGORY: "This morning, a special hour-long discussion making sense of health care. What are the issues at the center of the debate? How would reform affect your health care? Separating fact from fiction in the fight. And what does it mean politically for President Obama?"

I thought it would be an informative show based on his opening. But I was quickly disappointed when I heard his third question. Keep in mind this is a question from the host of the most watched Sunday morning news show. Also, keep in mind his stated goal is to "make sense of health care":

MTP - DAVID GREGORY: “All right. But let’s talk about the tone of the debate. There have been death threats against members of Congress, there are Nazi references to members of Congress and to the president…Senator Coburn, you are from Oklahoma. When this element comes out in larger numbers because of this debate, what, what troubles you about that?..."

Senator Coburn answers David Gregory's question. Although I'm not sure how this is going to help people to "make sense of health care". If I were a cynical person I would say he was trying to marginalize the people who are against the current health care reform proposals and therefore marginalize their opinions - but that's just my opinion:

MTP - SENATOR TOM COBURN (R-OK): "Well, I’m, I’m troubled anytime when we, we stop having confidence in, in our government...."

David Gregory being the top reporter for NBC didn't feel Senator Coburn's answer was sufficient to help us "make sense of health care" and so he asked a follow-up question. In my opinion David Gregory was a little more animated when he asked his follow-up - but that's just my opinion. Now I'm not sure how the answer to this question was going to help me understand the health care issues but maybe NBC News knows better than me:

MTP - DAVID GREGORY: "That’s—but wait, hold on, I want to stop you there. I’m talking about the tone. I am talking about violence against the government. That’s what this is synonymous with."

Eventually David Gregory did ask some non-subjective questions which might help people "make sense of health care". He asked about cost. This is an important question because we need to know how we are going to pay for it. Here is his question to democrat Charlie Rangel.

MTP - DAVID GREGORY: "…How do you fund reform? It’s going to be expensive…I want to bring in Charlie Rangel, congressman of New York, of course, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee."

Pretty good question - "HOW DO YOU FUND REFORM?" Maybe David just started off slowly but now his award winning reporting was taking over...now I needed to hear how Representative Rangel thinks the reform will be paid for.

MTP - REPRESENTATIVE RANGEL: "…when the people of the industry can tell you that they can save tens of trillions of dollars by working with the president, then you know that we can resolve most of this by stopping what we’re doing wrong."

Now, I thought this response, from a leading Democrat, was interesting. He just said, "TENS OF TRILLIONS" of dollars can be saved by working with the president. Surely, this deserved a follow-up question. I expected Davy to ask, "Where did you get that statistic from? Who calculated it?" At the very least it deserved, "Excuse me Representative Rangel. Did you really mean TRILLIONS or did you misspeak?" I waited and waited but there was no follow-up question from our top reporter from the top news show.

A little later David Gregory asked a executive vice president of the Chamber of Commerce a question. This man made some interesting points related to unintended consequences of the proposed health care reform.

MTP - DAVID GREGORY: "Let me bring in Bruce Josten . He’s the executive vice president of the Chamber of Commerce. They have a perspective on this."

Bruse Josten is concerned that a public option will encourage many employers to cease providing their employees with health care because their employees could receive health care from the government. A VERY likely scenarios in my opinion. This would increase health care costs for the government which would require taxes to be increased to pay for them.

MTP - BRUSE JOSTEN: "...and independent researchers in the health care analytical area, as well as CBO, have expressed concerns that many employees could migrate away from employer-sponsored cover because of that competitive cost advantage..."

Senator Dashele chimed in and made an interesting comment:

MTP - SENATOR DASHELE: "I think the argument is kind of interesting. It is that, well, this is going to be so popular that people are going to leave the private sector and go to the public sector."

Senator Dashele's comments either showed his ignorance or he really thinks we're a bunch of idiots!! The point is NOT that people would leave their private health care for public health care because it's more popular - IT'S BECAUSE THEIR PRIVATE SECTOR HEALTH CARE WOULDN'T BE OFFERED BY THEIR EMPLOYERS ANYMORE IF THERE IS A PUBLIC OPTION!!!!!

I waited for a follow-up question from our crack reporter, from the top news show in America, but unfortunately I'm still waiting.

So, can we rely on politicians or the main stream media to provide us with facts and relevant information related to health care? Can we rely on them to ask politicians the tough questions we need answered to help us make informed decisions concerning health care?