Kumbaya, Not Kevorkian, Will Kill Grandma

I don't know which is more dispiriting: the New York Times' failure to call Betsy McCaughey a liar, or Barack Obama's failure to call Chuck Grassley a liar. It's tempting to think of both failures as cowardice, a mortal fear of being branded "liberal." But ironically it's liberalism itself that makes them both mistake their cowardice for fair-mindedness.

Exhibit A is how the Times covered Jon Stewart's evisceration of McCaughey on The Daily Show.

McCaughey, a former Republican lieutenant governor of New York, is the ventriloquist who put "death panels" in Sarah Palin's mouth. A provision that permits Medicare to reimburse patients voluntarily seeking advance counseling from their doctors about wrenching end-of-life decisions -- something that plenty of Republicans like Palin and Senator Grassley (R-IA) have supported -- was maliciously twisted by McCaughey to mean that Obama will force people to pull the plug on Grandma.

When McCaughey walked onto the set of The Daily Show last week, she brandished a huge binder containing the House health care reform bill. When Stewart asked her to show him where the death panel provision was, she couldn't. In a 15-minute interview he gave her all the rope she needed to make the case that Obamacare means mandatory euthanasia, and with that rope she hanged herself.

"Making Sense of the Healthcare Debate" was the Times' heading for its coverage of the encounter. But instead of telling its readers that Stewart caught McCaughey lying about the bill, the Times reported that "they could not agree on what it actually said." He said her reading of the bill was "hyperbolic and in some cases dangerous"; she said "Democrats intended to intrude on the medical decisions of dying people." He said, she said: that's what the Times means by "making sense" of a debate.

What requires the Times to castrate itself? How did excellence in journalism come to mean impotence in the face of untruth? Fox News, which excels in promulgating untruths, purveys its propaganda under an Orwellian banner: "We report, you decide." It does, of course, the opposite; Fox decides, ideologically, and it cleverly packages its partisanship as reporting. What makes the Times worship a Fox News definition of journalism -- "fair and balanced" -- that not only gets violated at Fox, but that cravenly substitutes stenography for adjudication?

The answer, I suspect, is liberalism -- not the muscular democratic liberalism of civil rights and social justice, but the flabby postmodern liberalism of on the one hand and on the other hand. The Right is righteous; it claims to know what God wants. But the secular response to fundamentalism isn't science, it's kumbaya, a campfire that requires reason and ignorance to pay mutual respect, a moral cowardice that values pluralism more than it values values.

That's why it's so dispiriting to watch Obama let Grassley play him. Grassley tells his Iowa constituents that Obama wants government to get rid of Grandma, yet Obama says Grassley is working "constructively" on health care reform. Grassley calls Obama "intellectually dishonest," Grassley has the gall to accuse Obama of using the end-of-life flap "to divert attention," yet Obama hostages his presidency to "bipartisanship." Republicans crow that destroying health care reform will destroy Obama, polls show Obama's Democratic base deserting him because of his deference to Republican nihilists and to health and insurance industry special interests, yet he defers to Max Baucus (D-MT), the Senator who, as the Montana Standard reported, raised more campaign money from "drug companies, insurers, hospitals, medical-supply firms, health-service companies and other health professionals" than any other member of Congress.

The people carrying loaded assault weapons to Obama's events are not our swell fellow citizens simply exercising their rights, nor are the people carrying Obama-as-Hitler signs to town hall meetings merely a heartwarming demonstration of America's commitment to free speech, nor are the moms and Rush Limbaughs and Glenn Becks saying "Nazi" just proof of the robust vitality of our democracy, nor are the Sarah Palins and Betsy McCaugheys and Chuck Grassleys only colorful players in the theater of politics.

If journalism had the courage to tell the truth, and if liberalism had the stomach to confront evil, maybe good leaders would be as willing to wield power as bad ones.

Sure -- and if Grandma had wheels, she'd be a bus.

This is my column from The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. You can read more of my columns here, and e-mail me there if you'd like.

 

Follow Marty Kaplan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/martykaplan

Comments

[Halsey]

killing gramma...this is so nuts, no marginally intelligent person would buy into it...they (the gramma's who are afraid they'll be carted off to..well...gramma heaven...don't get that what the gov't offers is FREE legal advice for a living trust and advance directive.­..jeezuz..­.attornies are EXPENSIVE..I WANT a trust..can't afford one..thankfully, my doctor did print out a two page directive for me so I could appoint someone with POA over my health decisions..and this a FRIEND..who KNOWS I DO NOT WANT TO BE KEPT ALIVE ON respirators and feeding tubes...just keep me out of pain (I'm only 54..have cancer..so truly..this is relevant for me)...and let me fade away..(if ONLY I lived in Washington or Oregon..two CIVIL states)..but no WAY would I let my "born" again family make decisions.­..jees..I'­d be on tubes til l. ron hubbard came back...nope.it is quality..NOT quanitity..but THAT is MY choice..and if someone else WANTS every means possible used for that one last breath..then PUT IT IN WRITING FOR FREE WITH THE GOV"T PROGRAM..simple as that... I accept death (don't want to die..but...pain would be worse)...and when it's my time..it's my time...I believe in "something" else out there...God, unicorns..and a feeling of deep love that will envelope me...not bad..not bad at all...

[Shammie2000]

How can we hold the ReThug's to account and not have the same for the American Public, if the
ReThug's lie (and trust me they do) the public has access to the internet (huffpo) and so many other
outlet's to get the truth on matters of today, people scream at Bill Mahr for saying this is a dumb
country and then make exception's for the people to continue to act dumb.

[SewaneeLeftist]

Wonderful analysis -- the question, "How did excellence in journalism come to mean impotence in the face of untruth?" is one we should ask each time a supposedly ethical mainstream news outlet fails to call a lie a lie. And we should all point out each time a lie is allowed to stand next to the truth in some mistaken idea of balance. By all means, report the lies; just don't treat them as if they deserve equal billing with facts.

[grooveygrover]

she said "Democrats intended to intrude on the medical decisions of dying people."

I think she meant republicans, remember Terri Shiavo anyone?

[2pt]

"The answer, I suspect, is liberalism -- not the muscular democratic liberalism of civil rights and social justice, but the flabby postmodern liberalism of on the one hand and on the other hand."

Word.

[ssg13565]

When Betsy McCaughey was searching back and forth for page 432, Jon should have said, "The pages are numbered in the top corner, can't you even find the one numbered 432? It follows 431 and comes before 433."

[ssg13565]

Where Jon Stewart missed the boat was in letting her say phrases like, "The way I read it." She said certain words were on page 432 and those words were not there. You are right, she was lying. However, Jon Stewart looked like he didn't have the evidence that she was outright lying. All he could do was show that he read it one way and she read it another.

If she cannot see the words that are on the page and can yet see words that are not on the page, I don't care what degrees she has, there is something wrong with her. He should have asked her if she had had any serious brain injuries since she got her degree? Maybe reading comprehension isn't required to get a PhD these days.

We can disagree how to interpret words, but if we can't even agree on what words are there, then it is pretty hopeless.

[Benton]

The author excoriates others for not confronting lies but he constantly uses the term "untruths." If he can't say the word lie why does he expect others. The word "untruth" is weak as hell.

[sciphy]

Advertising is dominated by health care providers, insurers and the pharmaceutical industry. Advertising is what funds print news, network and cable television and, if you look around the corners of these pages, even HuffPo. All media outlets are slaves to advertising, and we pay the price. That's why we have not gotten the straight line on health care reform. Do you think the sponsors want health care reform?

[MegWe]

Did the author (and anyone else reading this) watch the town hall where Obama DID call out the people in congress who were advancing the death panel" grabage? I remember him doing it, right after Grassley agreed with the mob at his town hall. Anyone have a link to that? Didn't Grassley come back the next day and try to backtrack on this? I remember thinking that Obama had Grassley in a corner, not the other way around.

[CheneysACoward]

"moral cowardice" Good point/thought. It's almost like the Democratic party is sitting back after the elections. Like a deer in the head lights. We won now what do we do. Here is a hint....hit back not with a hammer but a wrecking ball. When those like Grassley spew their lies and fear campaign hit them back then. Do not give them a chance to breath. When people like Tom Colburn run a Tow Hall meeting and are faced with a question on medical care. Then have to odacity to say, " This is the time for neighbor to help neighbor" Slam him hard! This is medicine not recovery from as tornado!
Use political pack's. When CPR runs Ad's like it cares...run your own telling people who they are. Who is Mr. Scott, the man behind CPR. Tell them he is the person who has paid the highest fine ever given for ripping off tax payers via Medicare over a Billion Dollars ! Of who's money? And now he's on who's side? Right.
When these clowns , lie....slam them and do it fast and do it hard !!!

[DaneAZ]

Calling liars out is really important.
What;s wrong with the truth?
What?
Anyone who doesn't call out a liar is handing the world over to them.

[darker]

REPUBLICAN achievements: LYING, SMEARING, DECEIVING the American Public
for the sake of GREEDY CORPORATE INSURANCE PROFITEERS
who want NO COMPETITION from a common sense gov't single-payer insur. plan.

[raker]

NPR's been doing it for years. They seem to dread being perceived as liberal so they have two speeds: unabashed cheerleading for the Republicans (they were ecstatic for every miserable aspect of Bush's invasions and occupations), or pretending not to notice Republican lies. They won't even call torture torture, using Republican euphemisms like "harsh interrogation techniques" instead.

It is despicable for news organizations like The Times and NPR to pretend not to see realities that interfere with their devotion to the bogus, artificial notion of even-steven, you-decide reporting.

[Billie]

I wish we could retire the word "kumbaya" for awhile. It's getting stale