PBS ombud Michael Getler is siding with critics of a Frontline documentary that failed to examine single-payer national health insurance as a possible alternative to the U.S. healthcare system.
Citing FAIR's study "Media Blackout on Single-Payer Healthcare," which documented that single-payer advocates were all but shut out of the media discussion about healthcare reform, Getler stated:
The only alternative to the current U.S. healthcare system that was examined in any depth in Sick Around America was Massachusetts' system of mandating that people buy insurance from for-profit health insurance companies. FAIR had criticized the film for misrepresenting the findings of Frontline's earlier documentary, Sick Around the World (4/15/08), which had emphasized that all other countries ban insurance companies from making a profit on basic care, and had discussed single payer alternatives including Taiwan's healthcare system.
Today, FAIR's radio program CounterSpin airs an interview with T. R. Reid--a Frontline reporter for Sick Around the World who quit the production of Sick Around America because it contradicted the earlier Frontline documentary.(Audio file available at: http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3758).
FAIR, the national media watch group, has been offering well-documented criticism of media bias and censorship since 1986.
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