The Single Question Journalists Must Ask Newly Persuaded and Persuasible Democratic House Members in the Last Hours
–Richard E. Vatz
It’s crunch time.
There will be a great deal of last second persuasion.
I think House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Barack Obama will get the votes they need to pass their health care plan.
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What will good and bad journalists ask the voting principals, those who have claimed to be on the fence and those who are newly in favor of Obamacare?
I just watched an empty interview of a Democrat from a Republican district on CNN. He said he was persuaded to vote yes on the Democratic health-care plan by the illness of Natoma Canfield, President Obama’s atypical example of a victim of current healthcare in the United States. After the Democrats’ plan passes, there will, of course, be no more terminally ill patients.
Stop the pap, please.
Serious journalists, ask this: What, if anything, has been promised you or your state, and/or are there any other inducements, if you vote for the health care plan?
There is nothing to be gained by asking what component of the bill persuaded a politician – any answer just is a statement of what expedient poignancy that individual wants to be associated with his/her vote.
What precisely have you been promised to support the health-care overhaul, Mr. or Ms. or Mrs. Representative?
Your elected position demands full disclosure.
The good journalists will ask this repeatedly over the next 2 days.
Professor Vatz teaches Media Criticism at Towson University.