Anatomy of a media disaster: Why the press is botching the latest Obamacare story

Mix of innumeracy, vulnerability to spin and thirst for controversy explains lame coverage of CBO Obamacare report

BRIAN BEUTLER

Twenty-four hours later, after a tremendous swell of misinformation, the latest Obamacare firestorm has settled into something resembling a debate with real factual underpinnings.

But two things about Tuesday’s eruption bear extra scrutiny, because they reveal weaknesses in the media that contribute to public confusion.

First, the CBO report that fed the false controversy included a lot of information about Obamacare, most of it pretty good. And yet the item that hooked the media was the one most easily spun as “bad news.”

Second, that item was actually crystal clear about the impact Obamacare would have on the labor market. Some conservatives are still reveling in the idea that for once it’s liberals who are upset with CBO findings and calling the agency’s objectivity into question. But that’s not what’s really happening. Liberals are urgently trying to correct a thousand claims — both from GOP press offices and from reputable media outlets — based on glaring misreadings of a CBO report that, statistical uncertainty aside, isn’t terribly controversial.

Together, these weaknesses led to the biggest Obamacare derp storm of the year. And the only explanation for it is a combination of incentives and lapses that stain the media’s broader coverage of Obamacare and a number of other stories.

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http://www.salon.com/2014/02/05/anatomy_of_a_media_disaster_why_the_press_is_botching_the_latest_obamacare_story/