MediaWatch: September 1994
Table of Contents:
Big Money Hijacks Democracy?
As health care reached the Senate floor on August 8, Nightline host Chris Wallace asked: "Has big money hijacked health care reform....will members of Congress respond to the interests of voters or the influence of big money?" In search of an answer, the media focused on only one side of the money equation, those fighting Clintoncare, while ignoring those who lobbied on behalf of the President and First Lady's plan.
ABC reporter Jackie Judd acknowledged "There were groups friendly to the President, like labor unions and senior citizens organizations," but overlooked the impact of monies they spent. Judd reported only: "The National Federation of Independent Business has spent $45 million in the last year to defeat the employer mandate....The tobacco industry, a powerful lobbyist in Washington....has contributed more than $800,000 to members who sat on the three key House committees dealing with health care."
Judd saved her best for this year's media scapegoat: "And then who could forget Harry and Louise....The ad campaign cost the Health Insurance Association of America a record-breaking $14 million."
On the August 10 Inside Politics, CNN correspondent Brooks Jackson targeted the business community. Jackson warned viewers: "Business lobbyists are now discussing the possibility of a `super lobby,' a coalition of big business and small business conducting a massive, nationwide grassroots campaign aimed at killing health care legislation in this Congress."
But USA Today columnist Tony Snow wrote on August 15 that as backers of Clinton-style reform, "Unions have spent $29.9 million on direct and indirect political gifts" since 1991, "nearly twice as much as any other type of group with a direct interest in medical reform, and more than all the nation's insurance companies, health care providers, administrators and medical trade associations combined." That doesn't include the $12 million spent by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to promote government-run health care.
And what about the financial interests Clinton allies have in the outcome? Snow disclosed the American Association of Retired Persons "received $85.9 million last year from U.S. taxpayers in the form of grants for employment programs," and the National Coalition of Senior Citizens "reported $71.6 million in income on its 1993 federal income tax forms, 96 percent -- $68.8 million -- of which came from Washington."
Snow concluded: "The real culprit isn't Harry and Louise. If anything, it's Hooked on Phonics: Citizens have read the fine print, and they don't like what they've seen."
