Ultimate Chutzpah: ABC Rejects Ad Ciritical of Obama Health Care "Reform" as "Partisan"

More on the mainstream media coverage on the administration's health care "reform" and on-going debate among citizenry.

ABC (who aired the special program on health care from within the White House) and NBC (the CEO of the parent company, GE, is an economic advisor to President Obama, who also happens to be a director at New York Federal Reserve Bank) refuse to air an ad critical of Obama Administration's health care "reform".

ABC, NBC Won't Air Ad Critical of Obama's Health Care Plan
(8/27/09 Fox News) [emphasis is mine]

"The refusal by ABC and NBC to run a national ad critical of President Obama's health care reform plan is raising questions from the group behind the spot -- particularly in light of ABC's health care special aired in prime time last June and hosted at the White House.
The 33-second ad by the League of American Voters, which features a neurosurgeon who warns that a government-run health care system will lead to the rationing of procedures and medicine, began airing two weeks ago on local affiliates of ABC, NBC, FOX and CBS. On a national level, however, ABC and NBC have refused to run the spot in its present form."

The ad was created by the League of American Voters (according to Fox article, a national nonprofit group with 15,000 members who advocate individual liberty and government accountability).

"[Bob] Adams [executive director of the League of American Voters] said the advertisement is running on local network affiliates in states like Louisiana, Arkansas, Maine and Pennsylvania. But although CBS has approved the ad for national distribution and talks are ongoing with FOX, NBC has questioned some of the ad's facts while ABC has labeled it "partisan.""

""The ABC Television Network has a long-standing policy that we do not sell time for advertising that presents a partisan position on a controversial public issue," spokeswoman Susan Sewell said in a written statement. "Just to be clear, this is a policy for the entire network, not just ABC News."

"NBC, meanwhile, said it has not turned down the ad and will reconsider it with some revisions."

No one, not even Obama, seems to know exactly what's in the House bill H.R. 3200, what's in the Senate version, what's in the versions that different committees in the House and the Senate have been discussing. However, NBC apparently knows all the "facts" to dispute the ad (I wonder it's a "fact sheet" provided by the White House/Democratic Party, instead of "facts"), and ABC labels it "partisan", totally oblivious to the fact that by rejecting the "partisan" ad the network itself is taking a "partisan" position.

As the article cites Dick Morris (a FOX News political analyst and the League of American Voters' chief strategist, who was a onetime advisor to former President Bill Clinton):

""It's the ultimate act of chutzpah because ABC is the network that turned itself over completely to Obama for a daylong propaganda fest about health care reform," he said. "For them to be pious and say they will not accept advertising on health care shuts their viewers out from any possible understanding of both sides of this issue.""

Speaking of being partisan, ABC is clearly excited about the return of "Harry and Louise" ad, this time promoting their dear leader's health care "reform". The ad, as I wrote in my posts, was created by a pharmaceutical industry lobby PhRMA who reportedly has had a secret deal on health care with the White House and whose slogan on their website says "Disease is our enemy. Working to save lives is our job."

And here I was, thinking the days of militarizing everything was over and done with, with the previous administration. By the way, as I mentioned in my post also, the health care bill H.R. 3200 is full of "corps" and "force" for the "positive" "change".

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Obama's Secret Deal with Big Pharmas

In case you missed it (and in case you are wondering why the pharmaceutical industry and AMA are the big supporters of the administration's health care "reform"), here's an article from Huffington Post:

Internal Memo Confirms Big Giveaways In White House Deal With Big Pharmas (Ryan Grim, 8/13/09 Huffington Post) [emphasis is mine]

"A memo obtained by the Huffington Post confirms that the White House and the pharmaceutical lobby secretly agreed to precisely the sort of wide-ranging deal that both parties have been denying over the past week.

"The memo, which according to a knowledgeable health care lobbyist was prepared by a person directly involved in the negotiations, lists exactly what the White House gave up, and what it got in return.

"It says the White House agreed to oppose any congressional efforts to use the government's leverage to bargain for lower drug prices or import drugs from Canada -- and also agreed not to pursue Medicare rebates or shift some drugs from Medicare Part B to Medicare Part D, which would cost Big Pharma billions in reduced reimbursements.

"In exchange, the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA) agreed to cut $80 billion in projected costs to taxpayers and senior citizens over ten years. Or, as the memo says: "Commitment of up to $80 billion, but not more than $80 billion.

"Representatives from both the White House and PhRMA, shown the outline, adamantly denied that it reflected reality. PhRMA senior vice president Ken Johnson said that the outline "is simply not accurate." "This memo isn't accurate and does not reflect the agreement with the drug companies," said White House spokesman Reid Cherlin.

"Stories in the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times last week indicated that the administration was confirming that such a deal had been made.

"Critics on Capitol Hill and online responded with outrage at the reports that Obama had gone behind their backs and sold the reform movement short. Furthermore, the deal seemed to be a betrayal of several promises made by then-Sen. Obama during the presidential campaign, among them that he would use the power of government to drive down the costs of drugs to Medicare and that negotiations would be conducted in the open."

And opponents look at "business as usual" at the White House with weary eyes. (Remember then-Vice President Cheney's confab with energy company executives?)

The Huffington Post article has this image of the memo:
For those of you who don't want to click on the image and back, here's what it says:

July 7 --

PHARMA DEAL
Commitment of up to $80 billion, but not more than $80 billion.
1. Agree to increase of Medicaid rebate from 15.1 - 23.1% ($34 billion)
2. Agree to get FOBs done (but no agreement on details -- express disagreement on data exclusivity which both sides say does not affect the score of the legislation.) ($9 billion)
3. Sell drugs to patients in the donut hole at 50% discount ($25 billion)This totals $68 billion
4. Companies will be assessed a tax or fee that will score at $12 billion. There was no agreement as to how or on what this tax/fee will be based.
Total: $80 billion

In exchange for these items, the White House agreed to:
1. Oppose importation
2. Oppose rebates in Medicare Part D
3. Oppose repeal of non-interference
4. Oppose opening Medicare Part B

If this "is simply not accurate" as PhRMA Senior VP says, or "isn't accurate and does not reflect the agreement with the drug companies" as White House spokesman Reid Cherlin says, then what is exactly the deal that they secretly reached? The White House spokesman's comment indicates that there is indeed an agreement with the drug companies.

Also, when the government say "it is not accurate", more often than not they mean semantics and phraseology. "We don't use word "oppose". We form a committee to study the matter."

By the way, PhRMA is responsible for putting up an awful advertisement promoting the health care "reform" of the administration. When you are unfortunate enough to see the ad featuring "Harry" and "Louise", you can curse PhRMA. (It's a good thing I decided not to upgrade to digital TV, though I miss baseball games and golf tournaments.)

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"Reforma, the Obama-Pelosi Prescription

for building a government takeover of heath care..." and

"Recommended by more lobbyists than any other health care reform..."

I found it on Lewrockwell.com's Blog section. It's pretty good for an ad created by the RNC.

You can also watch one of the ad blitz in support of the "reform" put out by the health care industry at the blog page: "Health Care Clash: the Commercials" (Karen De Coster, 8/17/2009 The LRC Blog). It's so horrible it makes you want to jump off the cliff and die instantly. The ad was created by PhRMA, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America which represents leading pharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies in the U.S.

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