Read More of the Same Day's Blog

The duly-sworn-in 112th Congress dominated headlines for the third straight day. NBC had Brian Williams anchor from Washington, where he aired an Exclusive pre-taped interview with John Boehner, the new Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives. NBC devoted ten minutes to the two-part interview accounting for fully 51% of its newshole and singlehandedly qualifying Boehner as the Story of the Day. CBS also led from the House, as it resumed its debate on healthcare reform and read the Constitution aloud. ABC took time off from Capitol Hill, to lead instead with healthcare as it is actually delivered--or is withheld. Arizona's Medicaid cuts have led to a second death in the transplant waiting list.

Williams' interview was divided into two parts, the first on public policy, the second a personal profile. Speaker Boehner prays a lot, smokes cigarettes a lot, and cries a lot. As for policy, "What do you say to those who would disagree that it was the best health care delivery system in the world because they, by the millions, were not getting it?" "Yes, not every American had fair access to affordable health insurance. Every American had access to the best health care delivery system in the world."

NBC spent so much time on the Boehner interview that the story filed by ABC's Mike von Fremd and CBS' Ben Tracy found no room in its rundown. They both followed up on the liver transplant patient who died in Tucson because the state refused to pay for his surgery. Instead of focusing on the dead man, both brought us 27-year-old Tiffany Tate, a cystic fibrosis patient who has had to resort to personal fundraising to pay for the $200K lung transplant that may keep her alive. Presumably the free publicity from the network newscasts will help raise the funds that Arizona's Medicaid decided to withhold.

As for the House debate on whether to repeal the plan for universal healthcare coverage, Nancy Cordes led CBS' newscast with an added wrinkle from the Congressional Budget Office: not only would the Republican proposal result in millions more being uninsured, it would contradict their commitment to reduce the federal deficit. Per the CBO, repeal would require the government to borrow an extra $200bn. ABC's David Muir followed up with an inquiry for Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius about the federal government's failure to prevent massive rate hikes in healthcare premiums for individuals who pay for their own insurance. There is no massive federal government takeover of healthcare, apparently, after all: "That is really what the state authority would do," the secretary explained.

Andrew Tyndall 1/10/11 5:49:10 pm

© 2010 Tyndall Report