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Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor said nothing at her Senate confirmation hearings to justify being treated as Story of the Day for the third straight day. In fact, CBS did not even bother to assign a reporter to cover her testimony. Healthcare reform took center stage instead with action on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. The Senate Health Committee, dividing along partisan lines, proposed legislation to mandate universal coverage. Meanwhile President Barack Obama orchestrated a trio of sitdown interviews with the in-house physician at each network. All three newscasts led with the Senate plan, ABC and NBC from Capitol Hill, CBS from the White House.

NBC's Kelly O'Donnell called the doctors' house calls "one of the President's high-profile tools" in his campaign to get healthcare legislation passed. The Senate committee plan was approved in a 13-10 vote "with no Republican support," O'Donnell noted. She pointed out that the draft included no proposal for payment: "The Senate Finance Committee is wrestling with the issue of cost and trying to get some Republican support." ABC's Jonathan Karl was skeptical about Republicans backing: "The biggest challenge may be keeping Democrats on board." To that end the Democratic National Committee unveiled a series of issue ads directed at its own members, "Democratic ads targeting Democrats."

ABC's Karl saw insurance agents from around the country arrive on Capitol Hill to lobby against taxation of their industry and against competition from a government-run plan. CBS' Chip Reid found that "the lobbying operation of small business has really kicked into gear so the thinking is"--he did not say whose thinking--"that in the end small business will not be hit as hard as the House bill might suggest."

Andrew Tyndall 7/16/09 7:15:19 pm

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