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With Push From Fox, Cornyn Takes 'Death Panel' Bait
Rachel Slajda | October 30, 2009, 1:00PM
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In a Fox and Friends segment this morning, a Fox News legal analyst asked Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) whether the House health care bill has any changes "with regard to the death panel."
Cornyn responded that it's "certainly something we'll be focusing on."
The analyst, Peter Johnson Jr., began the interview by saying the House bill includes the end-of-life provisions that inspired Sarah Palin and others to predict bureaucratic "death panels."
Video after the jump.
He then asked Cornyn, "With regard to the death panel, has anything changed?"
(Check out TPM's "Evolution Of The Death Panel Meme" photo feature.)
When Cornyn discussed the length of the bill, but not death panels, Johnson pressed him.
"So with regard to the death panel, nothing much has changed?" he asked.
"Well we haven't been able to read the bill in its entirety, because it's 2,000 pages long. That's certainly something we'll be focusing on," Cornyn responded. "The concern, of course, is with trying to contain costs when the government runs health care, it invariably rations health care. And we don't want the government intervening in the kinds of decisions that ought to be made by families."
The Democratic National Committee has already blasted an email attacking Cornyn for the segment.
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CityGuy
October 30, 2009 1:31 PM
Cornyn. What an asshat! As is the little Fox he rode in on.
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Walter Mitty
October 30, 2009 1:35 PM
I think Reid put the "death panel" end of life planning back into the bill as a distraction. Give the teabaggers something to rally against, and give Fox something to talk about.
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kunda311
October 30, 2009 1:41 PM in reply to Walter Mitty
Thanks for your amazing insights, Walter.
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ericf
October 30, 2009 2:32 PM in reply to kunda311
He might be right. I don't generally get the idea Senate Democrats are that good at strategizing, but giving them a shiny object to get outraged about sounds smart to me.
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VictorLH
October 30, 2009 1:54 PM
Its part of the Economic Stimulus - Rile up the Teabaggers, they go out, spend money on material for signs, travel expenses and munchies for the events.
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kenga
October 30, 2009 2:19 PM in reply to VictorLH
SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
Ix-nay on the imulus-stay alk-tay
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JohnW1141
October 30, 2009 1:59 PM
On Friday morning's Washington Journal on C-SPAN, Republican Congressman Charles Dent said there was a medical device company in his disrtict that called this bill "The Death Bill".
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xargaw
October 30, 2009 2:03 PM
I really don't know where to put this comment so this place is as good as any. For quite a while I have been struck by the outright embarrassing level of stupidy from our elected officials that passess as acceptable rhetoric. In my student days in college or even high school, had I stood before my speech and debate coach and made the remarks that most of these people make, I would have been shredded by the instructor. I have never heard so much completely unsupportable preposterous opinion from any other segment of the population other than an avowed FOX viewer that listens to these idiots. And, the media treats what they spew as legitimate. They should be shredding this stuff for the viewer using facts and evidence, but for the most part, they don't. Is is any wonder that the twenty and thirty somethings in the country today find Stewart and Colbert the honest brokers? TPM does an excellent job, but unless and until journalism based on fact becomes dominant on TV and radio, the country is doomed to an increasing wave of ignorance. Everytime one these cretins lies and gets away with it, it encourages another one to do the same. Why are so many of the legitimate people in journalism and the media unwilling to really call out FOX for degrading the profession?
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calgarr
October 30, 2009 2:19 PM in reply to xargaw
Excellent question. I've been assuming all along that the only reason they don't get called out on this crap is because everyone else wants to reserve the right to do the exact same thing later, on a different topic altogether. Regardless of the actual reason, it's completely ruining our ability to have rational discourse, and that has scary implications for the future of this country.
People need to be held accountable for the things they say, and intentional dishonesty needs to be dealt with harshly...but by whom? The voters won't do it, for a variety of reasons (most of which probably boil down to party loyalty), so who will? Influential figures in the media won't do it for whatever reason (see above for my guess), and democrats and repugs can't police each other because the obvious bias encourages people to brush it off as partisan attacks.
So what can be done? Any ideas?
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midnight rambler
October 30, 2009 2:33 PM in reply to xargaw
Keep in mind that a lot of it is rooted in genuine simple-mindedness. I still cringe every time I hear someone, from a lawmaker to a soldier, refer to al-Qaeda or Iraqi insurgents as "the bad guys". It's like our adults have the mentality of 8-year olds. Can you imagine FDR talking about "dealing with the bad guys in Germany and Japan"? At least Obama put a stop to that in the executive branch.
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Beagle
October 30, 2009 2:36 PM in reply to xargaw
Excellent points in all account.
Let me add the following.
As anyone with a reasonable intelligence admits, Fox is in the business of pleasing its loyal audiences by delivering what they want to hear not real debate and objective news. It is very troubling to realize some segment of our society is still stuck in the middle age understanding of our world. I recently read a survey conducted by Science Daily that is too shocking to believe:
•Only 53% of adults know how long it takes for the Earth to revolve around the Sun.
•Only 59% of adults know that the earliest humans and dinosaurs did not live at the same time.
•Only 47% of adults can roughly approximate the percent of the Earth's surface that is covered with water.
•Only 21% of adults answered all three questions correctly
These, in my opinion, are your Fox Network devout audiences. Educate these guys and Fox will be joining the rest of the media in attempting to deliver somewhat objective news and semi -intelligent debates; what's more, politicians will be elected by smarter constituents whom they can't easily lie to and mislead. We live in an incentive based system; therefore, we can’t expect Fox to change because the incentives it gets by delivering BS is too much for it to lose. Educate their audiences and I guarantee you that would be the end of them.
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joseph
October 30, 2009 2:26 PM
What do you expect from a member of congress who hits people who try to ask him questions on camera:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GyT-6cgmiE&feature=player_embedded
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Hair_2_Play
October 30, 2009 2:56 PM
What an ass wipe the interviewer is. "What about the death panel?". There bloody people have no decency and shame. Of it also shows that they are getting desperate and desperate times call for desperate measure. Such naked desperation. Pathetic.
Cornyn? The less said about him the better.
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lcdrrek
October 30, 2009 2:57 PM
Once again, I am so Proud to be represented by Big John. You can always count on him to do and say the wrong thing. And just think we just reelected him last year so we only have to look at him for another 5+ years.
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AhTrini1
October 30, 2009 3:10 PM
FAUX news 'fair & balanced" for "morans".
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Common Sense Caucus
October 30, 2009 5:49 PM
How blatant can Fox's bias be? Cornyn didn't even want to discuss that nonsense but the interview made him. I think Fox has more control over the opposition message than the Republican Party. Fox is not an arm of the Republican Party, the Republican Party is an arm of Fox News.
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jvwalt
October 30, 2009 5:50 PM
What, they forgot to brief Cornyn before they went on air? A quiet word in the Green Room could have prevented this tragedy. C'mon, Faux News -- good propaganda takes planning!
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StewartIII
November 1, 2009 10:43 PM
"This smear began with Talking Points Memo, who complained that Fox was "pushing" the "death panel" meme, because legal analyst Peter Johnson asked John Cornyn: "With regard to the death panel, has anything changed?" Actually, in the introduction he called them "so-called death panels", attributing the phrase to Sarah Palin, explaining that the reference was to end-of-life counseling. Media Matters chimed in, trimming a 1:29 clip to 1:14 by leaving out the explanatory intro. Clarence Page reduced it all to one sentence, while the newspoodles simply reposted TPM's clip, adding:"
-
'Watch Peter Johnson say death panel as a statement of fact: "With regard to the death panel, has anything changed?"'
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"Of course, that's an easy claim to make when you don't mention what he said just before. And it's made even easier when the newsliars, TPM, and all the rest of them leave out what else Peter Johnson Jr said before the interview began. It's that bothersome business of context, which Fox haters are all to happy to remove when it fits their agenda. They won't tell you about this, but [we will]:"
http://homepage.mac.com/mkoldys/blog/user_files/deathpanels.mp3
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'JOHNSON: The tremendous percentage of dollars that we pay in the last months and years of our life--there is a determination by the House, to focus on those medical costs. No one is saying it's a 'death panel', but people have to understand that there is a tremendous interest in reducing costs in people's so-called later years of life...'
***
J$P: Fox Haters Week in Review
http://homepage.mac.com/mkoldys/blog/vmc278813547.html
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