Dangerous Distractions

September 04, 2009

With Congress in recess for August, the opponents of health care reform deployed operatives to congressional town hall meetings to use thuggish behavior to disrupt constructive conversations and silence Americans calling for reform.

These coordinated disruptions sometimes shouted down civil discussions and discouraged members of Congress from supporting important legislation to lower health care costs and stop insurance company abuses.

Unfortunately, the media took the bait.

In The Washington Post E.J. Dionne Jr. writes:

There is an overwhelming case that the electronic media went out of their way to cover the noise and ignored the calmer (and from television’s point of view “boring”) encounters between elected representatives and their constituents.

It’s also clear that the anger that got so much attention largely reflects a fringe right-wing view opposed to all sorts of government programs most Americans support. Much as the far left of the antiwar movement commanded wide coverage during the Vietnam years, so now are extremists on the right hogging the media stage – with the media's complicity.

Over the past week, I’ve spoken with Democratic House members, most from highly contested districts, about what happened in their town halls. None would deny polls showing that the health-reform cause lost ground last month, but little of the probing civility that characterized so many of their forums was ever seen on television.

Dionne reports that Rep. David Price of North Carolina was bluntly told by a reporter, at a town hall meeting he held in Durham: “Your meeting doesn’t get covered unless it blows up.”

Since the town hall was a constructive dialogue, and many in the audience support meaningful health care reform, the event apparently wasn’t considered newsworthy by the press.