Katie Couric Denounces "Fear" And "Ignorance" Driving People To Town-Hall Forums On Health Care Reform

Scroll down for video and transcript

Katie Couric denounced the "fear and frankly ignorance" that is driving people to town-hall forums on health care in her "Notebook" segment.

She expressed alarm that the debate has stirred up a hornet's nest and has "uncovered disturbing attitudes and emotions that have nothing to do with policy. Are we really still debating health care when a man brings a handgun to a church where the President is speaking?"

WATCH:

Watch CBS Videos Online

Read the transcript:

At a town meeting hosted by Senator Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania resident stood up to say that the health care debate has "awakened the sleeping giant."

Not exactly.

What's it's done, it seems, is stirred a hornets nest, and uncovered disturbing attitudes and emotions that have nothing to do with policy.

Story continues below

advertisement

Are we really still debating health care when a man brings a handgun to a church where the President is speaking?

How does a swastika spray-painted on a Congressman's office further a discussion about Medicare?

These are tough and challenging times and lots of people are scared about their jobs and the economy. But we can't let fear and frankly ignorance - drown out the serious debate that needs to take place - about an issue that affects the lives of millions of people.

It's time for everyone to take a deep breath and to focus on the task at hand before this sideshow drowns out the main event.

That's a page from my notebook.

Comments

[Jawn]

I for one look forward to what John Stossel has to say. It surely can not be worse than what Katie calls news. The poor thing thinks she's a journalist. People like her are he reason the republican party is alive and well. Simone Hill is corect when she says for some of us the debate is less about healthcare. It's about our rights as a people to disagree in a way you may disagree with. It's about RED, white and blue. I for one am glad that this public option is dying on the vine like the bad apple it is. It is ANTI-AMERICAN, and we the people, (the ignorant) see it as such. Palin for President!

[miscyan]

I doubt i would refer to Katie than anything other than more hot air. Her job as a journalist is not to give her opinion but report the facts and not tell us common folk that because one has a difference of opinion they are racked with fear and ignorance. Who the heck died and made her God.

Last time I checked the God (Spirit, Allah or whomever you worship) gave everyone their right to express their views. Thankfully, the government (at least for now but soon) does not have the right to take it away, though they are trying and the media should be questioning that not getting a warm feeling on their legs.

It is an insult to journalist to say that word in the same sentence with katie's. Her father's accomplishments can not be transferred to her through blood.

Her job simply is to provoke the thoughts from both sides, which she is not capable of doing. She has obviously taken sides, without any thought. I am not sure she or many of the journalists today are capable of thoughts because they seem to willing to go along and promote certain agendas when their job should be to report the facts, not incite with news.

[Simone Hill]

She makes a valid point that is not solely an opinion.

When people are come to town hall discussions armed to the teeth with the intention to intimidate others, speaking out of turn, and shouting others down are not simply dutiful citizens concerned about health care policies. They would be doing the same thing regardless of what the topic of the debate was about. To them, this is more about winning an argument against people they perceive to be their enemies, and less about healthcare.

[moeg]

Too much invoking of "god" in government ... and I wonder what the women of the Middle East where stonings still happen think about Allah and the rights he has given them to express their opinions! Typical neocon tactic you used, alluding as you did only to the reference of Couric's father's accomplishments (which was meant to indicate that she was instilled with values of good journalism). Did you even read about her training and experience? She is a brilliant interviewer (a key skill for journalists); she was the only one who was able to expose Palin's ignorance with such embarrassingly simple questions. So smart and so underestimated by people like you who dismiss her. And it was Bush & Co. that tried to rewrite the Constitution with the likes of Fox News's help. Now that's media with an agenda - using White House talking points as the basis for so-called reportage. There is 99.99 percent commentary and opinion on Fox. Shep Smith is allowed (encouraged?) to give "the other side" occasionally so they can keep the word "News" in its name. Bring back the Fairness Doctrine! Biggest fear of the far right, who've been pushing the unfair/unbalanced envelope since the election. Have they gone far enough for Obama/Pelosi to reconsider their stance on not reinstating it? It would break the Hannitys, Limbaughs, Becks, O'Reillys, et al, who have dragged our country into the mud. It feels like the 1950s-60s again. May someone have mercy on us.

[roninroshi]

Get a life Card...I have been a Life Member of the NRA since I was discharged in 1968...I served in S.E Asia...and there is a time and place for firearms and a "Town Hall" meeting is not the place...these bozo's are making a point that shows their IGNORANCE!!!

[roninroshi]

Well said Katie...

[Brute]

Isn't she paid somewhere around 800 trillion dollars a year for reading a teleprompter?

I'm certain she can relate to "the little people".

Give me a break.

[CommonSenseMom]

Key Word: IGNORANCE.

[Zeroes]

Katie...get a panel talk show like the view...or retire.

[Simone Hill]

I think there is something happening to America that goes far deeper than anyone realizes. It feels like America has split into two polar extremes and people on both sides have gotten so caught up in this huge fight that they can't even remember why they became upset in the first place nor articulate why they continue to feel so much anger directed at the opposite side. This is the reason why debates about Healthcare have turned into complete chaos... because its as if people care more about winning the debate than they care about the issue of healthcare itself.

It doesn't scare me that people carry guns and exercise their 2nd amendment rights. To me, the scary thing is that people are angry/frustrated but don't quite know why... and that's bad state of mind to be in when carrying a weapon. If you use a weapon, you should know exactly why you are using it (to counter a direct attack by an aggressor, hunting for food, protecting your home and family from intruders, etc)... and NOT as a means to boost the power of your misdirected anger.

"We have guided missles and misguided men." -- Martin Luther King

[Hopeforu]

It's finally great to hear Katie give an opinion. A lot of ignorance happening!

[Lisa Earle McLeod - Huffpost Blogger]

Go katie, go!

Too bad much of the mob doesn't watch the news.

[Alexander Card]

Since when was Katie Couric the expert on peoples rights, if this person or any like him choose to express there beliefs in this matter then thats there freedom to do so.

And it's deplorable that people attempt to put there fears into the rest of us, the obvious truth is miss kouric is afraid of firearms which is fine but her attempts to abolish other peoples rights or opinions based on that should be labeled criminal, if these people were breaking the law they would have been detained, it's not her right to decide there fate or how they chose to display there beliefs, since we all know that firearms are not a public debate but a political tool for advancement.

On a personal note there is something about her that is very unpleasant some might use the word bitchy that would'nt seem like the ideal quality for motherhood. If this is indeed true than she fails on a more basic level that has far greater merit than her opinions on this matter.

Actually I really just want to say in response to her GO JOHN GO!!!!!

Maybe it's the short hair or the wild eyes

[MJinCanada]

There are two kinds of countries in the world.

There are countries where people know that guns and other weapons have no place in a political debate.

And there are the countries where forensic anthropology teams dig the skeletons of young women clutching babies and young boys with marbles and yo-yos in their pockets out of mass graves so that they can be identified and buried with dignity, and evidence can be gathered against their murderers.

Which would you like to live in, Mr. Card.

[moeg]

we shouldn't be talking "beliefs"; religion is a belief. health care reform involves FACTS, which is what people should be talking about, like what's ACTUALLY in the bill that few legislators find time to read and discuss, but just like to blab about on national tv and radio.
Same goes for those inspired or incited to show up and disrupt town halls. How many do any real research so they can talk intelligently about the topic? How many can even read beyond elementary level. By the way, check your writing: there's a difference between "there," "their," and "they're." Look it up. And what does "motherhood" have to do with the "debate?" Oh, and protesters should demonstrate outside of the town hall gatherings. That's their (THEIR) democratic right. My democratic right is to be able to participate in a civil forum where I won't be threatened by people who've strapped one on and have bloodshed in their (THEIR) hearts. We can all exercise our rights. But we can't trample on each other's. That's what America is about. .

[Simone Hill]

"We have guided missles and misguided men." -- Martin Luther King

[saltpeter]

And what does "health insurance reform" have to do with people who lives a life of irrational fear carrying a LOADED WEAPON to an event on one. Face it, the PRESIDENT has said NOTHING about gun ownership in America. It's part of the larger scare tactic of the desperate neo con mob. The fear that America is changing so fast that they can no longer PRETEND to live in the fake 1950's world where "everyone knew their place". Tragic manboys then feel the need to reassert their "manhood" with bullying displays that are entirely meant to be an intimidation tactic. This is no different than lynchmobs who also could not deal with the fact that the Constitution wasn't made for only certain people and when the federal government took steps to extend the "God GIVEN rights" to more and more citizens, they pulled out their shotguns and ropes. The neo-con wing of the GOP has recruited the vast majority of it's base by appealing to this sense of irrational fear. This is the fear that says that there is a FINITE amount of power in the world and to share it with others is to lose some of your own.

[saltpeter]

Sorry, holding the PUBLICALLY FUNDED (the overall costs of health care are ALREADY paid for by the big bad government from 45-55% depending on which state you live in) so-called "private" industry accountable for the 19% increase in uninsured Americans with the coinsiding record profits of healthcare execs has NOTHING to do with a threat to gun ownership. You're inability to make the distinction shows that you are a willing neo-con who saw free choice rights, affirmative action and gay rights as a threat to your rights. You loss ZERO rights when women and minorities gained fuller access to the rights you already held and your right to carry a gun is in NO WAY infringed upon by the GOVERNMENT'S right to control the flow of it's wealth to profiteers who could care less about the average American's basic healthcare needs.

[onechord]

...she honestly doesn't say anything that isn't already obvious as of many, many years.

where's the cutting insight into one of the underlying problems?...that these people's attitudes are observable by the whole world, effectively accelerating the disrespect and disgust they have for mainstream american culture, contributing to its spiraling decline into irrelevancy.

how can these americans compete in a globalized economic system when they are completely out of touch with their own interests.. when they are completely out of touch with the rest of the world..

the post-war economic boom created complacency for the baby boomers. land, jobs, education were cheap and plentiful during most of their lives. the sleeping giant slept too long and now is unprepared for the world it lives in (culturally, intellectually, emotionally, economically, the list goes on..)

[ObamaNation0812]

So well said Im totally agree and then some!

[Jonatan Cruz]

Katie Couric, maybe one of the last actuall journalists, unless John steward count as in this Time's pool.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/22/time-magazine-poll-jon-st_n_242933.html

[Turningfool]

Oh, come on. Being on the right side of an issue doesn't make her a journalist. She has her job reading the news because people thought she looked cute on daytime TV.

[moeg]

She actually is a journalist. And a good one. Father was a news editor. She was a college reporter, then went to ABC News, then CNN, in Miami, in Washington, D.C., then NBC News as DEPUTY PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT... While on Today, she did some of the best news reporting there was. Don't be so sexist. I bet you think Sarah Palin was once an actual journalist. Good grief.

[FrankenPC]

Where was all this hate when BushCo sent our AMERICAN children to a Mid East sandpit to die?

Huh? Wingnuts and your Ar-15s. You just want blood. Tell the truth. Violence get's you off.

[LEFT-TURN-AHEAD]

Thank you Katie. These right wing mobs are frightening. With guns strapped to their, legs they are sending a clear message of anger and intimidation. Their signs decorated with Nazi symbols, have racist, homophobic and anti-abortion messages. My stomach turns and I fear they are calling the extremist among far right to commit violent acts. This uncivil behavior needs to be exposed on the major national media rather than sensationalized like it is on FOX. It is horrible to live in fear in one's own country. We cannot allow this mob mentality derail our democracy.

[VeryFairMOR]

I wonder where Ms Couric's comments are about the long history of disruptive and violent protests of the left are? I certainly don't condone all of what's happening from the right at these town hall meetings, but certianly, any fair minded person should acknowledge that similar tactics have been employed by protestors from the left for decades.
And, of course, such comments as Ms Couric's themselves, don't address the substance of any issue being debated about healthcare. It is merely name calling.
I truly think that the left is being very tone deaf politically about these protests at town hall meetings. The more they slander and complain about these protestors, the lower the poll numbers go for healthcare reform, and the faster the democrats are dropping their support for parts of the plan.

[emmasvoice]

You are precisely the type of person to whom Ms. Couric is referring. What does your comment have to do with the subject of her comment. The comment is denouncing rabid violence, profound ignorance and racism. You are promoting the violence and ignorance. Speak to the content of the message and not to your partisan beliefs about something that may have happened fifty years ago. This is the twenty-first century. Things and people have moved forward for the betterment of this country. Get over it!

[moeg]

you're right. but do some research and you'll find that the Republican police state is not so tolerant. no way they would have allowed these so-called health-care town-hall meetings to be hijacked by "protesters," who do NOT belong at these meetings. During the Bush debacle, he and his militaristic cronies made protesters demonstrate FAR FAR FAR away from any of the events they were protesting against. and, even last year, some 300 arrests were made on the first day of the RNC last summer. but the Dems are all too nice and they just want to be bipartisan. I say put a gate around the "town hall" and don't let anyone in 1) unless they can show they are actual constituents; 2) who has a loaded firearm; 3) who carries a sign 4) who wears a t-shirt emblazoned with a rallying cry. These town meetings should be a place to get legitimate questions answered and to conduct intelligent discourse. Too much to ask in the proverbial "heartland?"