Echo chamber: Bloomberg "commentary" health IT falsehood goes from Limbaugh to WSJ's Moore and Fox, back to Limbaugh

Media Matters by Eric Boehlert, Jamison Foser | Feb. 10, 2009 (News Analysis)

Summary: The Wall Street Journal's Stephen Moore and Fox News anchors Bill Hemmer and Megyn Kelly promoted the falsehood -- which first appeared in a Bloomberg "commentary" by Betsy McCaughey and was subsequently promoted by Rush Limbaugh and Matt Drudge -- that the economic recovery bill includes a provision that would, in Moore's words, "hav[e] the government essentially dictate treatments." Limbaugh later took credit for spreading this story. Full Story »

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4.1
 by Jim Lang - Feb. 11, 2009

This article refutes the statements in many media organs that claim that HR1 (the House stimulus bill) would have the government essentially dictate medical treatments. It points out that provisions associated with facilitating establishing electronic medical records have been incorrectly cited as requiring the government to dictate treatment. While the quotation of virtually every mistatement make this tedious reading, putting the record straight is indeed good journalism.

I downloaded and read the sections of HR1 cited by McCaughey and don't see how anyone honestly could interpret them as McCaughey did.

(12 answers)

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