SinglePayerCentral: Re: (Disclosing funding sources related to stories) NPR Media

Thank you for your response. First of all, please accept my apologies. I err'd in referring to an MA re your programs. Indeed I was referring to Morning Edition.

While I have your attention here, I would like you to know that I (as well, apparently, as thousands of others) are very concerned about the continuing of lack of coverage of the advocates of HR676 and S703 (as well as local bills) which provide a single payer publicly funded universal healthcare plan. 8 physicians and attorneys have gone to jail in the last 2 days for protesting their lack of representation in the recent senate finance committee hearings on healthcare. We have been monitoring the media closely and NPR (though certainly NPR is not the only media guilty of omission here) has repeatedly failed to report on both the bills (and underlying movement supporting them) themselves as well as these remarkable events earlier this week.

In monitoring the media - and NPR, especially lately - we have heard more time devoted to Miss California (though we've heard nothing of California's historic SB810 bill being REintroduced into California's legislature), an entire 5 min. or so devoted to a complex story on the marijuana legalization movement, and a variety of other news-related issues and topics.

I am herewith requesting a direct answer as to precisely why is the single payer movement (which consists of nurses, MDs, Ph.D's, and thousands of everyday people now) consistently overlooked, dismissed, and ignored? We heard a brief story recently which described the single payer advocacy movement as "the 'so called' single payer' movement. Such a comment suggests to me a spirit of bias and, given NPR is funded by taxes through our federal govt., this tax payer needs a response (and NPR can count on my withholding supporting dollars until I do receive both a response as well as hear consistent evidence that this problem is rectified).

I have phoned NPR before inquiring about this and was told "...I guess they thought it wasn't newsworthy..." Please explain how practicing MDs and nurses as well as health economists (going to jail over congressional bills regarding the hottest topic in the nation right now and DURING a senate hearing in Washington, DC no less) is not "newsworthy". The annals of Internal Medicine determined that over 59% of physicians now support a single payer publicly funded universal healthcare system. At a time when the President of the United States is making almost daily announcements regarding healthcare reform, please explain how this critical movement in the developing debate is not worthy of considerably more time and attention.

The many subscribers we have to our news site (and I would suggest a good portion of the entire single payer movement of over 25 years) await your answer.

Thank you very much in advance for your timely response to this inquiry.

ljr

SinglePayerCentral.com

On May 13, 2009, at 7:42 PM, Lisa Shepard wrote:

Hi there. Thank you for writing. I do want you to know that I totally agree with you that if NPR broadcasts stories on healthcare that include Kaiser polling, they should mention that relationship. However, i believe that NPR is outfront about its relationship with Kaiser since the polling is done with NPR and then reported as such.

Here's an example: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103322780

Thank you. I do really care about this issue so if there are examples, please be specific. You said NPR has such excellent shows such as MA, and I don't know what that show is. did you mean Morning Edition, i.e. ME?

best,
Alicia Shepard

om: Lisa Shepard
Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 5:26 PM
To: Lisa Shepard
Subject: (Disclosing funding sources related to stories)

From: NPR_Response@npr.org [mailto:NPR_Response@npr.org]
Sent: Friday, May 01, 2009 11:39 AM
To: Lisa Shepard
Subject: Message #5607-8639976: From Parature System (Disclosing funding sources related to stories)

You have been CC'ed on this action.

Message Information:
Message #:
5607-8639976
Date Created:
4/24/2009 11:26 AM EDT

...employs writers who who happen to receive some funding by the Kaiser F Foundation. I have not checked lately to see whether NPR receives donations of any kind from the KFF but I know in the past it has.

When you broadcast stories on healthcare that include polling from KFF, you need to disclose that association. To omit that fact is misleading and... leading... at the same time.

The conclusions arrived at in the latest story, for example, on healthcare and insurance clearly suggests bias which would benefit the Kaiser foundation (and no educated person believes in any way, shape, form that regardless of Kaiser's claim of independence re that which lies between the KFF and Kaiser as a health insurance co. that it really is not or cannot help but serve the interests of Kaiser health insurance sales).
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1 comment:

AnonymousMay 16, 2009 at 7:20 PM
Thank you for pursuing this. NPR's lack of decent reporting on single payer has been a betrayal.

Kaiser is listed as one of the Top Ten Enemies of Single Payer. Quoting from: http://www.healthcare-now.org/2009/04/top-ten-enemies-of-single-payer/

Kaiser Family Foundation. One of the most prestigious liberal inside the beltway think tanks on health reform policy. Saul Friedman is a reporter for Newsday. In February, Friedman wrote an article for Newsday arguing that single payer is suffering from a conspiracy of silence. And he says Kaiser is the most culpable of the co-conpsirators. Kaiser, funded initially by insurance industry money, regularly keeps single payer off the table, Friedman says. When single payer advocates released a study in January asserting that Congressman John Conyers’ single payer bill (HR 676) could create 2.6 million new jobs and would cost far less than the private insurance currently paid for by individuals and employers, “the Kaiser Family Foundation’s daily online report on health care developments at kff.org didn’t mention it,” Friedman reported. “Nor has Kaiser, the most comprehensive online source of health care information, made any mention of single-payer or the Conyers bill since it was introduced in 2003, despite widespread support for such a plan according to Kaiser’s own polls.” After a number of insistent inquiries, Kaiser told Friedman that they would publish charts in March comparing the Stark and Conyers bills. They never did.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Re: (Disclosing funding sources related to stories) NPR Media - Healthcare

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Message Information:
Message #:	5607-8639976
Date Created:	4/24/2009 11:26 AM EDT

	...employs writers who who happen to receive some funding by the Kaiser F Foundation. I have not checked lately to see whether NPR receives donations of any kind from the KFF but I know in the past it has. When you broadcast stories on healthcare that include polling from KFF, you need to disclose that association. To omit that fact is misleading and... leading... at the same time. The conclusions arrived at in the latest story, for example, on healthcare and insurance clearly suggests bias which would benefit the Kaiser foundation (and no educated person believes in any way, shape, form that regardless of Kaiser's claim of independence re that which lies between the KFF and Kaiser as a health insurance co. that it really is not or cannot help but serve the interests of Kaiser health insurance sales).
Help us pronounce your name:
Country:	United States
State:	California
City:	Los Angeles
URL on npr.org with problem:
Podcast Release Date:
Podcast Name:
Computer:
Browser:
Firewall:
Connection: