The corporate media helped to spread more lies about the ACA, when NBC gave Sarah Palin an unchallenged platform for her Obamacare lies on Today.
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Palin was supposedly on the Today show to promote her book, but the interview really was a forum for her to lie about the ACA. Palin was asked President Obama’s apology for the website, and said, “What apology? He kind of acknowledged a bit that there’s a broken website. The broken website is the least of America’s worries. This broken website I think is symbolic of a broken administration. Take over one-sixth of our economy and the socialized medicine that’s being crammed down our throat, that’s what’s broken.”
She falsely claimed that most Americans will be losing their health insurance, “”Where do you get this five percent? It’s not five percent. It’s most Americans will not be able to keep the healthcare policy and programs that they had desired. The new programs that are being forced down our throat are unaffordable. Some of them are still being told, ‘Well if you like that insurance policy and that coverage, you still will be able to keep it, it’s just going to cost you a little bit more.’ That’s the point. If it’s going to cost you more, then it’s not the same policy.”
Sarah Palin was lying on all counts. The ACA is not socialized medicine. It is a change that allows people to participate in the free market so that they can have access to affordable healthcare. The 5% number is a fact. Sarah Palin came up with a very unique and untrue definition of losing your health insurance. She claimed that if your policy changes in any way, you’ve lost your health insurance.
As anyone who has health insurance knows, policies change every year. New things are no longer covered. Co-pays change. This happened every single year before the ACA. The difference is that the changes that are happening now are adding services and lowering costs, which is the opposite of the past.
During the course of the six minute interview, Lauer and Palin spent a little more than one minute talking about her book. Sarah Palin’s appearance on Today that was supposed to be about promoting her book was really a national morning show platform to lie about the ACA.
NBC should be ashamed to have given Sarah Palin a platform to tell her lies about the ACA to a national morning show audience that isn’t the most politically knowledgable. Matt Lauer didn’t bother to correct Palin, or pushback against her obvious lies. He let her continue to misinform and deceive the American people about a new that will be beneficial to the vast majority to them.
What happened on Today was another example of the “liberal” media helping Republicans promote their lies about the ACA. NBC should be held accountable for helping Palin mislead America. It’s stunts like this that should make every American who cares about facts and truth turn off Today.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
