FAIR Blasts NYT's Healthcare Coverage

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting have found unfairness in healthcare act coverage by The New York Times. FAIR has raised $24,670 toward its goal of $50K.

FAIR said the Dec. 15 NYT story that had the words “universal,” “health” and “plan” in the headline was “extremely misleading and irresponsible.”

The Republicans who won the Presidency have no such plans in mind, says FAIR, noting that Donald Trump’s seven-point proposal of March 16 did not have the word “universal.”

Thirty million Americans currently lack medical coverage and that number will swell another 20 million if the Affordable Care Act is repealed, says FAIR.

The NYT story failed to quote a single critic of the vague GOP plans concerning healthcare, it adds. Instead, the article has “nonsensical and unchallenged arguments made by Republicans.”

Also criticized for alleged lack of fairness are the Washington Post, which had an op-ed piece by Marilyn Tavenner, CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), and Politico.

Tavenner argued that there is “no single bullet to ensure that people get covered” and the notion of universal healthcare is “virtually impossible,” both of which are inaccurate, says FAIR. Just about every industrial nation has such a plan, the website says.

Politico is criticized because it relies on Ed Haismaier as its “go-to expert” on healthcare. He is a former Pfizer executive who became a Heritage Foundation health analyst and who has been cited or mentioned 22 times in Politico articles since the passage of the Affordable Healthcare Act, says FAIR.

Trump has named Haismaier to a post in the Dept. of Health and Human Services.

FAIR Seeks $50K

The 30-year-old FAIR is in the midst of its annual year-end fund-raising drive, having raised $24,670 toward a goal of $50,000.

“Media published a great deal of hyperbole from liberals about the ACA which was a ‘market solution’ promoted by Heritage and Forbes as the furthest acceptable ‘left’ solution to the healthcare crisis,” says FAIR.

Dismissed were single-payer and even the public option, it adds.

FAIR’s New York offices at 124 West 30th st. are one block from the Committee to Protect Journalists' offices at 330 Seventh ave. CPJ raised $1.7 million at its 2016 banquet in the Waldorf-Astoria. Net assets at the end of 2015 were $16.7 million.

FAIR's income exceeded expenses by $160,190 in the year ended June 30, 2015. Revenues were $592,688 and expenses, $432,190. Salaries were $247,004, a decline from $336,934 in the previous year. Publisher Deborah Thomas was paid $43,516.

CPJ, saying the Trump Administration represents a threat to press freedom in the U.S., has promised to devote major attention to such threats in 2017.

The CPJ board, headed the past five years by Sandra Mims Rowe, on Oct. 6 said CPJ, which normally is focused on press threats abroad, was making an unprecedented foray into U.S. “politics” because “A Trump presidency represents a threat to press freedom unknown in modern history.”

“Since the beginning of his candidacy, Trump has insulted and vilified the press and has made his opposition to the media a centerpiece of his campaign," said a CPJ statement. "Trump has routinely labeled the press as ‘dishonest’ and ‘scum’ and singled out individual news organizations and journalists. Full text of the CPJ statement is here.