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

[godlessclif]

CNN used to be owned by Atlanta renegade Ted Turner. During Gulf War I it developed an reputation for integrity.

However Billionire Sumner Redstone, Connecticut
old money with connection to Yale want a Yale grad as President. That is Hillary. Sumner bought CNN and Turner retired and CNN's integrity retired with Turner.

CNN is now the biased Clinton News Network
The unfair nature of the CNN debates, the packed pro Hillary audience show that.

Rupert Murdoch owns Fox and likes Rudy
and NYU lawschool.
Sumner Redstone own CNN and CBS and likes Hillary and Yale
I think both billionaires will not cry
If one of these pro business conservatives
are elected.

[Wombat]

You guys just don't get it. Health care is a liberal Democratic issue. To ask a question on this would be unfair and biased agaist the conservative candidates. Eliminating any supposed "liberal" bias obviously takes precedence over the petty interests of the pain-in-the-ass public ( Note the sarcasm)

[godlessclif]

Hillary wasn't satisfied in controlling the Democratic debate and painting Kucinich as saucer nut and booing Obama and Edwards. The Clinton News Network put Hillary operatives in the Republican debate like the Gay General and the so called "Log Cabin Republican" that was proved to be a Hillary supporter and a Democrat.

This strike is over, but Hillary will not be in any debate where she does not control the audience and the agenda. Hillary does not want
an NBC debate, because her pal Sumner does not own NBC.

Sumner Redstone owns CBS, CNN and Jon Stewart and comedy central. All of thses outlets are biased to Hillary.

[Cybele]

Out of the 5000 or so questions Cooper mentioned that CNN got from citizens for the debate, management's clear choice was for issues that hit right wing hot buttons but have nothing to do with realities or with most people. Were none of the questions received about health care? I was also struck by the tone of mean-spiritedness set in both the audience and the contestants -- er, candidates. The only high note was McCain's comment that illegal immigrants are also "all God's children". I don't support him (due to his age and Iraq position) but he seemed the only individual who presented as a three dimensional human being.

[LC]

Unfortunately, even the questions on health care addressed in the Democratic debates have been useless, due to their phrasing or the limits on candidates' responses.

I would like to hear a detailed discussion of their proposed health plans by the Democrats - with no ad homimen attacks allowed. (Let's face it, Republicans think the current system is fine - or would be better if people had to pay ALL the costs out of their own pockets).

Ex.: Clinton asks Obama "well, what about X?" Obama gives an explanation of how his plan addresses X or why it doesn't.

In short, I want a detailed, nerdy discussion about their plans, why they chose one particular method of funding over another, how their plan would handle certain situations, etc., etc. Obama asks Clinton a similar question. etc. etc.

Unfortunately, this would need a moderator who has actually read all the plans, understands (at least superficially) how they differ, and is willing to stop ad hominem attacks and force the candidates back into a discussion of the details.

This could easily fill an hour of network time - but since it is unlikely to produce any "gotcha" TV clips, we will never see it.

[slgalt]

Healthy public debate is needed...one in which the public gets to participate without the corporate middle men. Just like health care needs to serve the public and not the corporate middle men.

For-profit news, like for-profit health care does not serve the public or the common good.

[BeyondPopper]

Just got this e-mail from another web site:

Dear RedState Reader:

RedState is calling for CNN to fire Sam Feist, their political director; and David Bohrman, Senior Vice President and Executive Producer of the debate.

During last night's debate, which CNN billed as "a Republican debate, and the goal was to let Republican voters see their candidates," CNN either knowingly or incompetently allowed hardcore left wing activists to plant questions and Anderson Cooper willingly gave one of those activists a soapbox so he could harass the Republican candidates about military policy.

Simple googling would have revealed these left wing activists.

Had CNN done its homework, this would not have happened. They either willfully let it happen, or incompetently bungled it. Either way, heads should roll.

Likewise, we hope one or more of the GOP Presidential candidates will call for a do-over debate on substantive policy issues.

You can read our Directors post here.

All the best,

Erick Erickson
Editor, RedState.com

So now we can know what the other side is trying to do with our political process.

[stopwar]

While all thinking people have complained today that neither health care nor global warming were addressed in the GOP debate or even in the questions, none of the candidates have said it was a problem. I think that's because, if you care about those issues you aren't voting for any of the Republicans anyway. Indeed, the GOP debaters accurately presented their proposals concerning the health crisis by saying nothing, since nothing is exactly what they propose. It may be ridiculous that Anderson Cooper didn't make them admit that, but it doesn't really make any difference.

Even if you look to the Democrats, you see that only Edwards and Kucinich are proposing universal health care.

Oddly enough, the hypothetical question Joe Brewer poses tracks very closely the way John Edwards moves to the issue of health care in all his speeches: He says that he knows he's lucky to have always had health insurance; that he credits the union his father belonged to; and that the critical nature of the issue was driven home by his wife's cancer. And he asks why every American shouldn't have the same coverage that members of Congress enjoy.

Most important, Edwards accurately sees the health care problem as one of corporate manipulation, charging Congress and most of the Democratic party with caring more about the insurance and pharmaceutical industries (and their campaign contributions) than about the 47 million people who don't have the health coverage they need and should have a legal right to.

[Sylvie]

And why haven't you mentioned that Dennis Kucinich is the only Presidential Candidate of either party who has already begun this discussion by calling for a NOT-FOR-PROFIT, universal, single-payer system?

[Davian]

CNN deserves to have their FCC license revoked at such blatant attempts to control the debate. The routine violations of journalistic ethics in mainstream corporate media must no longer be tolerated by a public whose interests are presumably a function of granting an FCC license in the first place.

Ultimately though, it is the (mostly) somnambulant public who bears responsibility for failing to demand more.

[Donald]

"We need a real and open debate about health care."

Actually, we need a real and open debate about practically everything, period.

[michlev]

so true and so sad what ebbtide says ... the debates, the questions, the audiences -- it's all for show, it seems, scripted, planted and staged, whichever party's "debate" it is. With the mainstream media failing so miserably and tragically at its supposed job, citizens are left to their own devices to inform themselves. Unfortunately, not many seem up for that challenge, and most people I know lap up the drivel from talking heads, absorbing whatever sound bite makes it out of the fray, not even interested in questioning the source of the so-called news. I wonder what forums exactly Mr. Brewer thinks are available for average people to be taken seriously? (forums that are large-scale and widely recognized like CNN and others ...)

[Tellmethetruth]

I waited for them to ask the one question I wanted asked of the Republicans before November 2008 -

"If elected President, will you pardon Bush/Cheney/Rove for crimes committed during these past 8 years?"

"If elected President, will you investigate the crimes committed by Bush/Cheney/Rove during this past 8 years?"

I have no doubt a "deal" will be made that just like George Bush I pardoned the Iran Contra cronies, we can expect a presidential pardon from a Republican President - it out of the Bush family play book.

[TuffPosh]

If you want a real debate about the issues, perhaps the HuffPost could get behind this proposal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA8Kgn_48t0

C'mon, I dare you.

[hopeless277]

Geeze folks, CNN is a news(read entertainment) organization. They need ratings not boring speeches on boring health care. After all, their parent company is Time(Joe Kline)Warner and we all know how seriously Time(Joe Klien)Warner takes journalism. I'm sure it was just a simple ommission(SNARK!!!!).