Where's the Healthy Debate, CNN?

When CNN airs a YouTube debate for Republican presidential hopefuls you might think they'd select questions about the most important concerns Americans have. After all, the questions were taken from everyday citizens with a video camera and access to the web. But health care wasn't mentioned.

As prominent health care diarist nyceve put it at Daily Kos:

I waited.

And waited.

And kept waiting.

But a single question about the plight of 47 million uninsured Americans, or the rest of us who have to wage an unending true holy war against the for-profit insurance industry, just didn't make the CNN cut.

This omission is shocking when you consider that health care is one of the most important concerns Americans have. A recent Washington Post/ABC poll shows that health care is right up there with the occupation of Iraq and economic woes as a major issue in this presidential election.

It certainly begs the question of why CNN chose to overlook all 40 YouTube questions about health care. Is it perhaps because they know that the Republican candidates don't have much to say about health care? After all, every general Democratic debate has included discussions of candidate plans.

Even CNN was on the ball when the same moderator for both debates, Anderson Cooper, introduced health care at the earlier Democratic YouTube debate with "One of the most popular topics that we got questions on was health care. We, frankly, were overwhelmed with videos on health care, so we put several of them together."

Why did he let the Republicans off the hook?

Think about it. We are in the midst of a health care crisis and a major media source leaves us in the dark about the views of presidential hopefuls who, presumably, will represent all Americans in the White House if they are elected.

We need a real and open debate about health care. If CNN won't allow it, perhaps those of us in the blogosphere will have to do it for them. (You can find additional resources about health care at the Rockridge Institute.)

Try to imagine all of the presidential candidates, of both parties, responding to this hypothetical question:

I've always considered myself lucky to get health insurance through my employer. But when my wife was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, I found that having insurance isn't enough to guarantee that she gets the treatment she needs. From denying tests that her doctors feel are medically necessary to a refusing to pay for treatment they already approved, insurance companies are interfering with what doctors think is best.

What would you do to provide Americans with the security of knowing that we can get the health care we need? Not only the uninsured, but people like us who are not secure even when we have insurance?

A discussion is needed of profit-first health care where profits arise through the denial of care. Consideration of the difference between more health insurance and more health care must be openly explored.

We need a public forum that promotes deeper and more substantive discussions of the major issues in America. CNN revealed a symptom of illness last night. Faced with lagging ratings, CNN turned to YouTube to create the appearance of participation. But if CNN isn't willing to raise one of the most pressing concerns of Americans, people will turn even more to forums where they are taken seriously.

Comments

[davestuck]

While not as obvious as Fox News, CNN continues to attempt to shape the debate, frame the issues, and editorialize in the guise of journalism.
Polls are used to reinforce positions or entertainment, and ignored when they are not relevant to the hot new "alert".
Instead of asking questions to stir controversy or fights, how bout asking questions framed to inspire?
"If the largest burden on those at the bottom and middle of our economy is healthcare, what is your plan to help "the least of our brothers"?

[JoshuasGrandma]

Even HP keeps calling these candidate photo ops "a debate" These are not debates - these are ads - sound bytes and shooting galleries - To dignify them by terming them "debates" is shameful and everybody plays along -

[shiulee]

It was totally irresponsible for CNN to ignore questions on health care. Allowing the corporate controlled media to handle the candidate forums is a very bad idea. A truly independent organization such as the League of Women Voters should be in charge.

[carlmf]

Make them take a stand on the record. What else are the "debates" for?

[CrystalJim]

Until we can have a forum that is truly free, we won't get an open discussion on issues we care about. The only way to have an open forum is to take big business out of the news industry, and the only way to do that is to make every news outlet be single proprietor, sole business, and non profit. Until then the moneyed interests are going to give us what ever they want

[Tellmethetruth]

This one is too good to ignore. Guiliani debates Joe Biden after Joe Biden said Guiliani was the least experienced person to run for President.

It is from the Boston Globe and called "The Debate You Didn't See" in which both Joe Biden and Guiliani debate Iran, Iraq, North Korea, and Torture. Check this out.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/11/07/the_debate_that_you_didnt_see/

[complexityprof]

Here we go again! The needs of people get abandoned because our media are in the hands of the oppressor.
This country is so backward it is fourth world!I have worked in israel, France and Germany and was immediately given better health care coverage than anything I can afford here. Only when I was under the socialized medicine program given to me as a USMC officer did I have something reasonable. I have been a medical school professor ever since then. I see the greed in the eyes of the medical students waiting to live like fat cats. They justify it because it cost so much to go to medical school. That is a half truth. I could not afford medical school even though very highly qualified. Instead I got USPHS and NSF support for my Ph. D. and postdoctoral training. Guess what folks? I have been grateful all my life and lived a life of serving to repay the people of this country who made my education possible. Meanwhile I watch the medical students salivate as they collude with the drug companies to milk the public for every cent they can get. Then those insurance companies. What a scam! A single payer government sponsored health care system would give insurance to every person in the US with no co pay and a minimum of paper work. It has all been studied and the negative propaganda that cost millions if not billions was paid for by the people who are the victims of the pharmaceutical and insurance industries. I guess since democracy depends on an informed electorate, we get what we deserve. Wake up America! They are raping us!

[johnnycakes]

Not much else illuminates the shameful contradictions between human need and corporate profit so well as a blazingly sick child without medical care.

Health care is a right, denying it is criminal. Not just here, but everywhere.

Another world is possible.

[bobfrank11]

It seems obvious that the Republicans are satisfied with the status quo on the health care issue so why bring it up?

[DA12]

First, conservatives have no answer for the health care crisis except more of the same system. Second, we need an independent organization running debates.

[ljsfolly]

One more time.... A debate is only a debate when there are people answering a question and then talking points on what they believe form there. CNN has someone deciding what they should be asked. The idea of real people asking real questions dies off when the real peoples questions don't all get asked or the ones that are on the issues we need the answer to how they really think and how they might deal with the real issues. Until the questions are asked and answered we will continue to be manipulated by those who decide what questions to ask who.

[ljsfolly]

I would like to know who at CNN had the say over which questions would be asked. Was it one person a group? It would be very telling to interview those who were the deciders to get why they avoided those questions the public really needs answers for. I think if there was a general "debate" not with the candidtaes standing in front of us but with the real live You Tubers asking and the candidates having to answer with someone vaildating it was the candidate answering. Kind of like a town meeting with all of the videos being run and the candidates having to sit there while someone wrote the answers blog style. Same questions for both groups of candidates with real people watching with a time limit for each question that each person had to answer. Until then its just whomever running the show manipulating us to think it is unbiased.

[realitytrumpsbull]

Um, the GOP debate was sponsored by Boeing....
. . . ...?

[Pdubya]

Healthcare? How about a healthy debate on ANYTHING.

And the first topic should be the ECONOMY and MONETARY POLICY.

Without that sound, nothing else is achievable.

[Manx]

I thought the so-called "debate" was a disaster. The opening musical number was rather awkward and the showing of candidates'commercials was redundant.

CNN found the time to ask a frivolous question about a candidate's favorite baseball team but no time for a question about health care or global warming. According to the latest polls, Americans consider health care the top issue.

The You Tube format has become too theatrical and gimmicky - but that's showbiz.