Media Coverage Of Obamacare Is Slanted

The mainstream media's coverage of the rollout of Obamacare has been disappointing to say the least. Instead of fairly reporting on Obamacare, the media has concentrated on stories that are negative. The above chart was done by Media Matters for America. They surveyed the stories done by the mainstream media in October. They found 202 negative stories -- 120 on the glitches on the Obamacare exchange website, and 82 on the GOP effort to defund Obamacare.

But positive stories on Obamacare lagged far behind that -- with only 26 stories on the new benefits of the program, and only 1 story on the role it will have in reducing economic insecurity. It is just a fact that Obamacare will result in a large reduction in the number of bankruptcies in this country (since most of them are because of huge medical bills). It is also a fact that only about 6% of Americans (those who currently purchase their own insurance) will be affected by insurance cancellations -- and more than half of them will find cheaper and better insurance through a state or the federal exchange. And 7 million Americans (6 million who currently have no insurance) will now qualify for free private insurance thanks to Obamacare subsidies.

The truth is that Obamacare will benefit (or not affect at all) about 97% of all Americans -- and the remaining 3% have incomes high enough to afford a small raise in premiums. Where are the stories about all of this? Where are the stories about how hospitals will be benefitted by Obamacare -- by reducing the number of those they have to treat for no money, and by reducing the use of emergency rooms for non-emergency treatments?

Frankly, there are a lot of positive stories that the media could be running, but they don't. They report the negative, probably because the negative stories draw more viewers and readers than positive stories do -- and most of today's media cares more about statistics than truth (because those statistics translate into more advertising dollars -- the only thing the corporations owning the media outlets really care about).