Fox News caught fibbing – again
Nothing would please Republicans more than an Obamacare failure.You already knew that, didn’t you? Since March 23, 2010, the day President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law, Republicans have tried to either repeal it or pull funding from it over 40 times. In fact, Obama’s ink had barely dried on the new document, when three Republicans in Congress introduced the first bills designed to get rid of it. It’s still here.
While its roll out has been roundly criticized, and even by the president, Republicans are starting to feel their oats. So much so, that The Ministry of Propaganda for the Republican Party — Fox News — is going all out to discredit Obamacare. That’s what this is about.
Of course, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, talks freely about how Obamacare is ruining the country, albeit with not a shred of proof. He’ll tell you that companies all over the country are being forced to cut their staffs and how people are all going to go bankrupt because of it. Again, no proof.
When Ted Cruz’ crusade against healthcare for Americans who need it began to fizzle, Fox News picked up where he left off and created fiction out of whole-cloth. Enter Sean Hannity.
So sure was he that he’d found proof Obamacare is a bust, that on Oct. 11 he staged an hour-long Obamacare special titled “Universal Nightmare.”
“Now, there’s no question that businesses are being negatively impacted by Obamacare, now they are not the only ones. Average Americans, their families are also feeling the pain, thanks to the healthcare overhaul train wreck,” Hannity gleefully told his audience. As it turns out, Hannity’s special was the real train wreck. He found six people who claimed they’d become “victims,” not the beneficiaries, of Obamacare.
Construction company owner Paul Cox and his wife of Leicester, N.C., claimed their business, strapped with the evils of Obamacare — would be unable to grow. In fact, they claimed, they’ve had to cut their workers’ hours to part-time to avoid Obamacare’s mandated increased costs.
Those are complaints tailor-made for Obamacare detractors. Obama and his insidious healthcare plan are going to ruin the nation’s business, they’ll tell you.
Hannity just knew he’d found the proof that fit his premise. He hadn’t.
A contributor for Salon.com, Eric Stern, found the couple’s claims a bit curious. He called them, and he discovered they only had four workers. As it turns out, Paul Cox’s construction business is exempt from Obamacare because their company has 46 fewer workers than the 50 that would require they pick up healthcare for their workers.
Stern asked Cox about the increased costs he mentioned on Hannity’s show. “There was a long pause, after which he said he’d call me back. He never did,” Stern writes.
Stern, who admittedly was once a senior adviser to Montana’s Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer, went even further. He contacted all six of the people Hannity paraded in front of the Fox News cameras, who claimed they’re getting a raw deal from Obamacare.
He called one woman, Allison Denijs, who’d claimed that her $13,000-a-year premium would increase under Obamacare. She admitted to Stern that she’d long been an opponent of Obamacare and that she hadn’t even bothered to try to check healthcare.gov to find out if she would have to pay more. Stern did, and he discovered Denijs and her family would probably only have to pay $7,600 a year.
He also called the third couple who appeared that night with Hannity, Robbie and Tina Robison of Franklin, Tenn. Once again, he discovered they are no fans of Obamacare, and, even though they pay about $10,000 a year for their health insurance, they say they won’t put down their political beliefs long enough to enjoy the benefits Stern found by checking the Obamacare exchange. So what if they stand to pay 63 percent less for their insurance? They got a chance to express their distaste for Obamacare on national TV, and they were warmly received by Sean Hannity.
Who could ask for more?
Edward A. Owens is a three-time Emmy Award winner and 20-year veteran of television news. Email him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net