I’m sure this is all just a coincidence, an accident of timing, but just for spitballin’s sake let’s take a look a couple of things.
Last week, the media was hammering away on Obamacare. Why, even lefty Ezra Klein had begun to suggest that the whole thing was a disaster.
Which, objectively speaking, it is. Millions have lost their healthcare or had it replace with more expensive plans despite Obama’s promise that if they liked their healthcare they could keep it. Millions more stand to lose our healthcare once the employer mandate kicks in. The “doc shock” is set to go off in January. And Healthcare.gov won’t be fully function on December 1, two months after it was launched. People whose coverage is being canceled thanks to Obamacare’s mandates will have a short window to get new coverage, many of them will end up paying more, and they have to use an embarrassingly dysfunctional website to do their shopping. Many will find their new premiums have increased so much that they’ll be forced to choose between Obama’s mandated insurance and having a normal Christmas.
None of that has changed.
Well, last week, President Obama summoned Klein and several other lefty JournoLists over to the White House. It was a private, off-the-record chat.
After that meeting, on the record, those journalists began writing about how things are looking up for Obamacare. In turn, other lefty JournoLists take the cue and start playing off those stories. Here’s a two-fer example, Steven Benen of the Rachel Maddow show and Ezra Klein, singing Obamacare’s praises side by side. Before that duet, Klein wrote that Obamacare’s failure actually hurts — not making this up — Republicans. The same day, Klein again pushed a “Republicans really need Obamacare to work” meme. That was a day after his meeting with Obama at the White House.
Does this stuff actually fool anyone? I doubt it, but it does create some headlines and it gives some other lefties in the media some license to stop hammering on Obamacare. It gives them a hook. It gives lefty bloggers something warm, a little comfort food from the White House table. Mainly, it keeps Klein’s access to the White House viable. Summoned by the president he adores, he couldn’t turn him down and couldn’t very well leave the meeting only to keep writing negatively about Obamacare. That would take something none of these JournoListers have: Integrity.
By the way, others invited to that White House meeting include Fox’s Juan Williams, along with MSNBC’s Ed Schultz and Lawrence O’Donnell. MSNBC’s Chris Hayes apparently didn’t get invited, but he’s such a cheap date it didn’t matter.
It’s worth asking whether they all shouldn’t be fired for so blatantly selling out to Barack Obama.
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