Weekly Wrap-Up

This week ABC continued to earn its nickname, the “All Barack Channel.”

This coming up Wednesday, ABC will run a primetime special live from the White House called “Questions for the President: Prescription for America” – basically an “infomercial” for the Obama Administration’s plans for government-run health care.

http://tinyurl.com/nh5sgh

Dissenting views on the idea of socialized medicine will be strictly limited. And according to FOX, this controversy hits “just as a new study finds ABC News coverage of the president's health care plan is favorable by a ratio of 3 to 1.”

So you probably won’t be hearing much on ABC about the fact that, as The Washington Times puts it in a must-read editorial, “Free health care is a very expensive proposition.”

http://tinyurl.com/myno22

The focus of this editorial is one of this week’s top news stories: “On Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the cost of the Kennedy-Dodd health care bill would run to at least $1.6 trillion over 10 years...”

The Times also makes a great point that’s not being discussed enough: “The administration systematically has underestimated the costs. In particular, it has ignored the very basic fact that if health care is provided for free, more of it will be demanded. That surely is a way to generate more unnecessary expenditures.”

Do you think we’ll hear more details about the astronomical cost of free health care this Wednesday on ABC? Neither do I.

But maybe we need more prime-time news specials from ABC. I have a few ideas...

ABC could do a live special from sunny Hawaii, on the new ground-to-air missile defenses being moved there in response to new threats from North Korea.

http://tinyurl.com/n22834

Question for the President: Is now a good time to be slashing defense spending, and cutting America’s missile defense capabilities?

Or, how about live reports from some of the most wasteful stimulus projects detailed in a new report from Senator Tom Coburn?

http://tinyurl.com/lam8ab

ABC could visit the John Murtha Airport in Pennsylvania, a rarely used facility (named for a sitting member of Congress being investigated for ethics violations) that will receive $800,000 in stimulus funds to repave a back-up runway.

Or they could broadcast live from the Florida panhandle, where a wildlife “eco-passage” designed to help turtles safely cross the road is receiving $3.4 million from taxpayers.

Question for the President: Do you think this is the best use of MY tax dollars?

Wherever you’re going this weekend, have a great one!