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Mon Aug 10, 2009 at 21:21:43 PM EDT
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As some of you might have noticed by now, there's not a lot being said about Medicare for all by the press or the MSM. That might have something to do with something called "interlocking directorates" - where a director from one company holds a seat on the board of directors of another company. Those directors have a duty to do all they can to make sure both businesses make a profit. If someone from the Blues' board of directors also sits on the board of a major newspaper... well we're not likely to see a story about Medicare for all in that paper, are we? I mean if someone reported on Medicare for all it might put their employers out of business. FAIR has more on this story...
Single-Payer & Interlocking Directorates
A recent FAIR study of nine major media corporations and their major outlets, Disney (ABC), General Electric (NBC), CBS, Time Warner (CNN, Time), News Corporation (Fox), New York Times Co., Washington Post Co. (Newsweek), Tribune Co. (Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times) and Gannett (USA Today) found connections to six different insurance companies. Five out of the nine media corporations studied shared a director with an insurance company; two insurance companies-Chubb and Berkshire Hathaway-were represented by more than one media corporation director.
The study also found crossover between these media corporations and several large pharmaceutical companies, such as Eli Lilly, Merck and Novartis, whose profits would also likely be negatively impacted by a single-payer system. Out of the nine media corporations studied, six had directors who also represented the interests of at least one pharmaceutical company. In fact, save for CBS, every media corporation had board connections to either an insurance or pharmaceutical company. ...
At the Washington Post Co., two directors are on the board of insurance conglomerate Berkshire-Hathaway, whose subsidiary General Re sells health reinsurance. In fact, Washington Post director Warren Buffet not only chairs Berkshire-Hathaway's board, he is the company's CEO. ... In the past six months, the Washington Post has published hundreds of articles on the subject of healthcare reform, fewer than 25 of which mention single-payer. Fewer than 30 percent of the sources who spoke about single-payer in these articles were advocates of the plan.
So between Senators like Max Baucus - who rakes in boatloads of money from the insurance industry - and reporters who know better than to bite the hand that feeds them, is it any wonder we're fighting an uphill battle re single payer?
And yet even with this news blackout, poll after poll shows that the majority of Americans would like to see a government run health care system put into place. Maybe it's because our elders and their children and grandchildren see what a great system Medicare is and they want that for all of us. |
| Alegre :: Reporters and single payer: The corporate ties that bind |
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"Always aim high, work hard, and care deeply about what you believe in. When you stumble, keep faith. When you?re knocked down, get right back up. And NEVER listen to anyone who says you can't or shouldn't go on."
Hillary Clinton - June 7, 2008
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