Steve Benen heaps praise on ABC News‘ new Fact Check segment for “actually informing the public about a controversy in a fair and accurate way.”
Kate Snow tackled the vile right-wing demagoguery on end-of-life care, and while she refrained from calling Palin and her ilk “liars,” she made it very clear that the accusations about euthanasia are completely wrong. It wasn’t a he-said/she-said report; it was just reality.
But Snow’s “fact check” is idiotic. She checks an absurd straw man and finds that, sure enough, it’s made of straw.
The business about “death boards” is over-the-top nonsense and is indeed being presented in a dishonest, unhelpful manner. But nobody* — not even Sarah Palin — is arguing that the Democrats actually put a measure into writing that requires offing granny when she gets too sick to be worth the cost of healing her. Rather — as Snow finally admits two minutes into the piece — the argument is that a natural consequence of having government involved in these decisions while trying to keep costs low is rationing of care and encouraging people away from expensive, extraordinary measures. The fact that the law, as written, puts the final decision in the hands of the patient doesn’t dispose of that fear.
A more useful “fact check” would have acknowledged the actual basis of the opposition argument and a look at how systems similar to those proposed, such as those in France and elsewhere, actually operate. Or even to note that Granny’s healthcare is already provided by the government and has been since the Johnson Administration.
*UPDATE: John Cole says I should have written “nobody sane.” He points to some lunatic called Mike Sola making this argument on some Fox News show of which I’d never heard. Fair enough.
