BOZELL: MEDIA MUST INVESTIGATE OUTRAGEOUS GOVERNMENT GAG ORDER
Published: 9/24/2009 11:44 AM ET
On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell twice on the Senate floor voiced outrage at a disgraceful and potentially unconstitutional abuse of government power. The Obama Administration's Health and Human Services (HHS) Department demanded all private health insurance companies immediately stop communicating how health care legislation might affect their Medicare Advantage customers' plans and threatened to prosecute them if they refused to comply. Currently there are 11 million senior citizens in this program - all at risk of losing a combined $123 billion in critical benefits and services under ObamaCare.
The cease and desist order was instigated by a letter that insurance industry giant Humana sent to its customers suggesting that reform could cost them important benefits and services and resulted in Humana backing down, announcing "it would cooperate with the (HHS) investigation" as reported by the Wall Street Journal's James Taranto.
This is an abuse of power that would shock even Richard Nixon. And yet, The Washington Post has thus far not printed one word about the violation. While ABC News aired an appropriate segment on Tuesday evening, their broadcast colleagues CBS and NBC have both ignored the transgression.
Media Research Center President Brent Bozell:
"Where is the outrage from the media on this abuse of power? Here we have an orchestrated and deliberate attempt to keep American citizens in the dark, particularly vulnerable seniors. Their very health is at risk, yet all but ABC have chosen to keep their audiences in the dark about this abuse. If they aren't willing to probe and at least question the administration on this blatant offense, what else are they shoving under the rug?
"The liberal media claim to champion free speech, but if they continue to turn a blind eye to this offense, we can only assume they approve of government censorship. And in this case, the stakes are much higher. Compliance with this deliberate attempt to hush anyone and anything that might derail Obama's government takeover is no longer just a violation of journalistic integrity, it is an offense that endangers the health and well being of our country's greatest generation.
