Posted on 04/13/2014 4:22:17 PM PDT by markomalley
Imagine a Yankees-Red Sox game during which the Yankees broadcasters acknowledged mistakes by their team and good plays by the Sox, while the Boston announcers ranted relentlessly that the Yankees stank and were lucky not to finish 0-162.
According to Kevin Drum of Mother Jones, something similar happens routinely in political media. Drum believes that both in general and regarding Obamacare specifically, liberal pundits are far more likely than their conservative counterparts to discuss their side's failures and give the other side credit where it's due.
From Drum's Friday post (emphasis added):
"Watch the right search desperately for bad news on Obamacare," says the headline to Michael Hiltzik's piece a couple of days ago about the right, um, desperately searching for bad news on Obamacare. And it's true. Obamacare is a great example of the famous hack gap.
Don't get me wrong. We lefties generally try to portray Obamacare as a success. You won't find Diogenes on either side. But I read lots of lefties who write about health care, and they've generally been willing to acknowledge Obamacare's problems. The federal website rollout was a disaster. The insurance pools so far seem to have fewer of the young and healthy than we'd hoped. Narrow networks are a significant problem, especially in some states. We don't know yet how many Obamacare enrollees were previously uninsured—and in any case, the number appears to be less than CBO projected earlier this year. Etc.
But unless I'm reading the wrong conservatives, you simply see nothing of this sort on the right. Their coverage of Obamacare is simply an endless search for increasingly strained ways to deny that anything even slightly positive has happened. The Obama administration is lying about its numbers. If they're not lying, the figures are meaningless anyway until they've been unskewed. Premiums are skyrocketing. People are being tossed off their plans and thrown in the street. The budget projections are a joke. Cancer patients are dying for lack of doctors to see them. Hours are being cut back and part-time workers are being fired. Fewer people have coverage now than before Obamacare started up.
I could go on. And on. And on. This is the hack gap in all its glory. There's simply no willingness on the right to acknowledge any success at all. And even when they're forced to concede that maybe there are a few people benefiting from Obamacare, it's just an opportunity to rail about Democrats handing out bennies to inner-city moochers like a modern-day Boss Tweed. Welcome to America, ladies and gentlemen.
We’ll you can’t affirm something that doesn’t exist
When you’re chewin on life’s gristle, don’t grumble. Give a whistle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlBiLNN1NhQ
And left wingers refuse to say anything nice about President Bush..so libs..shut your face
The difference is that we KNEW who Urkel was, we KNEW what socialized medicine was and we SCREAMED for everyone to get out of the way of the abomination that this president has caused.
By your reasoning we need to give the assassin credit for missing his shot at your head after we did everything but beg you to duck.
All I see in future is war.
At least the Militia is well armed.
Pray that our nation has a spiritual revival.
Pray our nation returns to Israels aid, and stops meddling in Gods plans.
There is not a chance of a two state solution over there.
The Palestinians should be eradicated.
God, through Jesus Christ, is our only hope.
Let’s just use the term “Conservatives who believe in the Constitution”, Kevin. This helps makes it clear why we do not find anything “positive” about a law that is contrary to founding principles, the law of the land, and the will of the people.
Hope this helps, Kevin. Ya pinhead.
Ya can’t pick up a turd by the clean end.
No desperation at all, in fact it's quite easy to ignore that which does not exist, i.e., anything, even the slightest positive about ObamaCare.
“Captain Smith, the Californan has wired a message that heavy ice lay ahead and they’ve stopped to wait out the night. Furthermore, the dead calm waters won’t make any whitecaps at the base of an iceberg tonight. Also, the lookouts have no binoculars.”
“Mr. Lightoller, why must you so desperately seek out all the negatives? Can’t you tell me how the gentlemen are enjoying the first class smoking room, or how the ladies view the Parisian cafe?
Full speed ahead!”
Sorry, Kevin Drum, but that’s out of balance reporting.
Liberals and socialists find things wrong with ObamaCare for 2 reasons:
1. It’s undeniably broken
2. They have been hurt by it or they know of those who have. It’s personal.
Conservatives don’t find anything positive about ObamaCare because those things touted as “positive” are generally: (a) preexisting conditions, (b) parents insurance until 26, and (c) coverage of those without insurance (d) portability
(a) There were state pools providing preexisting condition coverage prior to ObamaCare. And the way preexisting conditions have been averaged into the cost is part of why premiums are exorbitant.
(b) A 26 year old shouldn’t be on parent’s insurance policy. Additionally, that’s one of the mistakes in the system that is driving up costs. Why be young and paying for insurance when for zero dollars you can simply be on mom’s or dad’s?
(c) There actually was coverage prior to ObamaCare. Folks went to the hospitals and they were helped. That’s what they’re STILL doing because costs are so extreme, the formerly uncovered who want coverage can’t afford it.
(d) Portability. Insurance portability for those with conditions requiring it existed prior to ObamaCare. In 1985, Congress enacted a bill known as the Consolidated Omnibus Reconciliation Act, or COBRA. This legislation ensured that all eligible employees have the option to continue receiving their current insurance without any interruption of coverage stemming from an involuntary job loss or a cut in full-time hours.
So, conservatives don’t find anything of value in ObamaCare because there is nothing of value in ObamaCare. Not because they’re partisan.
Anything slightly positive which means you have to dig deep and when you do it might not be there
What, exactly, is positive about it?
There is nothing good in any tyrannical law.
when a federal program mandated by law covering 330,000,000 people only has 7m ‘voluntarily’ signing up.... what does that say?
it’s the largest vote of no-confidence I’ve seen in my lifetime.
98% of the country effectively told the fedgov to shove it
Why would anyone expect a rational person actually to read something that begins with that paragraph?
Desperately?
Really?
Obamacare generates bad news non-stop, all by itself. No searching necessary.
Perhaps the frustrated liberal writers means we should stop noticing and talking about it?
Well, that can't happen because the whole plan was so ill conceived and incompetently executed that it can't possibly work. But it's still costing us millions$ a day.
Not much sense repeating how many people lost their insurance, how much it's costing everybody and how the most critical 20% of the entire Obamacare web site at would make it actually work was simply not written!
No sense talking about the endless litany of lies from Obamarobots telling us how great it is and how everybody can get health care at no cost and it'll work great sometime in 2035...
I
Real Americans:I know there is much to learn from each other if we can make a truce. We can find a way to Co-exist. can there be a peace between us?
Domestic marxist Democrat Party: Peace? NO PEACE!
Real Americans: What is it you want us to do?
Domestic marxist Democrat Party: Die…die…
The endless droning of the obamacare-failure deniers gets tedious after a while.
I’m sure that if any person were having a positive experience with Obamacare that they’d be featured in an ad campaign.
I haven’t seen such, so no such person really exists.
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