The White House Smacks Down NBC News for Getting ObamaCare Change Wrong

obama-talk-to-hand

The White House communications department was more than a little miffed this evening by the incorrect reporting on the individual mandate’s timing being changed. The Obama administration didn’t delay the individual mandate or extend the enrollment period, but they did fix an overlap in the deadlines.

NBC wasn’t sure if Congress needed to weigh in on what they inaccurately thought the White House did. (Note: NBC is hardly the worst of MSM.) Much concern about that because this President has to be watched at all times – one of these days he’s going to break a law for real, unlike Benghazi and the IRS or the time he took strikes in Syria to Congress when he didn’t have to. This confusion fed right into Republicans’ hyper concern trolling for their big investigation tomorrow.

The White House communications team corrected the record and referred the press to Jay Carney’s Monday presser. Josh Earnest tweeted, “NBC is wrong again. Individual mandate timing hasnt changed. Deadline for having insurance is March 31. Was true this am. Is true tonight.”

To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.

Awww. And here House Republicans were foaming at the mouth with excitement over another bomb they could toss at ObamaCare for their “investigation” into the websites tomorrow. Well, no matter, reality has no bearing on Republican talking points. To the witch hunts!

A confused anchor then pondered who to believe — NBC or the White House? After all, what would the White House know about changes they made to the timing of the individual mandate. Maybe the Press Secretary?

Matt Lehrich got smart about it, “Pro tip: if @PressSec said it from the podium Monday, it’s not breaking, exclusive, or a “scoop” today. pic.twitter.com/zx4Dod2SOe”

Oh, that’ so not helpful. Trust nothing. I was warned tonight that ObamaCare is a ruse to get your personal information for the NSA in Utah – so naturally, we can’t believe the White House on policy matters that are in writing.

Dan Pfeiffer responded, “.@SuzyKhimm NBC’s report on the news was innacurate. This has nothing to do with the website, its something that had to happen anyway”. Clearly it did, since it overlapped. And let’s be honest here; the White House will be falling over themselves laughing tomorrow when Republicans go crazy over this, and they will.

Republicans are just that clueless. They will blow this up and try to make a meal/election out of it, as if finding a problem in the rollout of a great idea suddenly makes their shutdown of the government over said good idea a winner. Prepare yourselves for the massive growth of the GOP’s delusions.

The media is as obsessed with the GOP’s talking points about the ObamaCare website as they were the GOP’s phony scandals and the Tea Party before that. It would be amusing if it weren’t so inconsistent and revelatory about what they ignore and what they amplify.

They can’t be this short sighted, can they? No one is going to remember a few glitches by 2014. The press keeps assuring us that no one will remember the GOP’s shutdown of government by 2014, and yet GLITCHES ARE FOREVER!

The ObamaCare website is not a monster. It is not under your beds and it will not destroy ObamaCare. It’s a tech problem, not a death from lack of health insurance problem. It’s a clarification of timing, not Katrina (notice that Republicans only get upset when we try to save lives, but if many people are dying, that’s no biggie). Perspective much?

This just goes to show you that the sham that it’s only our government that needs to be checked and not our corporate press covering for the corporate shills (GOP and some corporatist Democrats) stealing wealth from the 98% continues.

Dan Pfieffer then tweeted the link to PolitiFact’s launching of the factchecking of pundits and added, “There should be some sort of penalty for over and incorrect use of breaking news alerts by media organizations”

No Dan, only the President gets a penalty for glitches. But glitches by corporate media — like oh, basing a false claim that the White House changed talking points to cover something up on the pretense that you have read the actual Benghazi emails when you didn’t, you relied on Republicans to tell you what the emails said — are okay. Get with the program. You guys are the problem because you deliberately misled the entire country by using Republican Congressional aides as “sources” on Benghazi and the IRS “scandal” — OH WAIT. That wasn’t you. Well. Benghazi!

President Obama’s account tweeted in the middle of the fray, “Good news: A new report shows how @Obamacare will save the country $190B over ten years.” Someone better tell President Obama that the press has no time to address how he might be helping to save the country money. They are very busy with glitches now that Benghazi died in spite of ABC’s Jonathan Karl’s right wing training camp for journalists. Now, if John McCain had saved us a dime, well, that there is some straight talk my friend.

This is the same media that was so outraged when Republicans tried to screw their own staffers during the shutdown (the shutdown that hurt our economy and killed jobs but is so not worth talking about anymore cuz GLITCHES!). The beltway was aghast – did you know staffers only make between $20-40K? Hey, beltway, did you know that many hard working Americans live on less than $14k a year with a family and they die from lack of healthcare while you concern troll about glitches? Maybe there are stories on the ground other than shiny object Tea Party rallies and possible ObamaCare glitches that may or may not be happening in reality.

Your 4th estate knows where to focus, my friends — right on the White House as long as George W. Bush isn’t in it. And that’s fine except the real theft is going on in the GOP-led House right now and this media is pretending like there’s nothing to see because they are terrified of Republicans.


Copyright PoliticusUSA LLC 2008-2023