Pine Tree Politics

Media Misreading The Collins Tea Leaves

By Matthew Gagnon
October 14, 2009

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This afternoon I posted an article, reporting that Senator Susan Collins opposed the Senate healthcare reform bill.  This was in response to the Senator’s press release, which said that while she believes reform needed to happen, she felt the Baucus bill was a step in the wrong direction.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I surveyed reaction to Collins’ release, and found the Associated Press saying, “Second GOP senator open to health care overhaul“.  Imagine my surprise again when I saw the Portland Press Herald picking up the AP story, changing the headline to read “Sen. Collins signals support for health care overhaul“.  Imagine my surprise again when even the conservative leaning Townhall.com posted the AP article, linking it with the headline “Another GOP Senator Open to Health Care Overhaul“.

This has left egg on the face of a number of “reputable outlets” – most notably the AP.  One lazy, irresponsible journalist (I’m looking at you Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar) misreading a press release (or simply outright lying about it) spawned a slew of copycats, who themselves deserve scorn for not actually reading, or digging into the release enough to realize the AP story was bunk.  Headlines spiraled into absurdity, and a sentiment that was never intended by Collins or her staff has become the mainstream interpretation.

Just take a look at the opening paragraph of Alonso-Zaldivar’s piece:

A second Republican senator signaled Wednesday she’s open to voting for sweeping health care legislation this year, putting President Barack Obama closer to a historic achievement that has eluded generations of Democratic leaders.

I damn near spit out my drink when I read that.

Lets be clear – I spoke with a number of people in Senator Collins’ office, and they confirmed my interpretation of the press release.  Namely, that Susan Collins favors the goal of reforming the nation’s healthcare system, but believes that the Baucus bill is a step in the wrong direction, and that she can not support it at this time.  Additionally, given the fact that the bill will get steered further to the left as time goes by, the prospects of Collins being open to the Senate legislation she will eventually vote on are extremely unlikely.

But this incident highlights a disturbing trend in journalism – namely that shoddy reporting, and flimsy logic not based in any kind of reality are becoming the norm, and legitimate, hard news that can be relied upon as impartial and accurate is dying a quick death.  It might be wishful thinking from a partisan reporter, or simply somebody too lazy to chase down a story the old fashion way.

I’ve gained a fair bit of attention for correctly interpreting the press release – but that is beside the point.  The fact that a blogger who lightly scanned the release while eating lunch and was completely distracted working on another project was able to essentially scoop the Associated Press and a professional, paid reporter is a horrendously scary idea.

And people wonder why no one trusts the news anymore.

Tags: Healthcare Reform, Susan Collins