New York Times Admits Shutting Out Single-Payer

The media analysis group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) issued an action alert September 22 titled "NYT Slams Single-Payer" that described lopsided reporting in a New York Times article about "Medicare for all," a form of a single-payer health care system. FAIR noted that the article, titled "Medicare for All? ‘Crazy,’ ‘Socialized’ and Unlikely", laid out a list of arguments against single-payer while failing to include any balancing responses from the option's supporters. In explaining the slant, article author Katharine Seelye said she was trying to explain why Medicare-for-all was "not going anywhere." "I thought the substance of [single-payer] had been dealt with elsewhere many times," she said. On October 13, Times public editor Clark Hoyt conceded that FAIR "had a point," and agreed that the article excluded the point of view of single-payer health care system supporters. FAIR said it finds Seelye's defense "alarming," and points out that the Times, like the rest of the corporate-owned media, has given the issue of single-payer health care "scant attention."

Comments

This is infuriating. How can Seeyle say in good concience that she thought that the merits of the single payer system had been discussed elsewhere in the NYT. I have never seen such an article in any media outlet that could be considered anything approaching mainstream. But I guess she's just giving americans what they want. All the reason to sit back and allow corporate america to run their lives and their government. Wake up america. take back your media, take back your government