Dan Calabrese

The Associated Press, which practiced so-called “accountability journalism” until George W. Bush left office, now does little more than parrot the line of Democrats in the White House and on Capitol Hill.

Today’s missive on ObamaCare by Richard Alonso-Zaldivar is one of the most egregious examples yet. The bold passages are my doing:

All propaganda.

There’s no clear course for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to steer legislation through Congress to President Barack Obama. You can’t make history unless you reach 60 votes, and don’t count on Republicans helping him.

But Reid is determined to avoid being remembered as another Democrat who tried and failed to make health care access for the middle class a part of America’s social safety net.

“Generation after generation has called on us to fix this broken system,” he said at a recent Capitol Hill rally. “We’re now closer than ever to getting it done.”

His bill includes $848 billion over 10 years to gradually expand coverage to most of those now uninsured. It would ban onerous insurance industry practices such as denying coverage or charging higher premiums because of someone’s poor health.

Most people covered by big employers would gain more protections without major changes. One exception would be those with high-cost insurance plans, whose premiums could rise as a result of a tax on insurers issue the coverage.

Good grief. Let’s take them one-by-one:

1. The AP has constantly described ObamaCare as “historic” in its headlines and leads, clearly signaling the belief of its writers and editors that socialized medicine represents some sort of manifest destiny for the nation.

2. Social safety net, eh? Access for all, eh? Never mind the current proposals still leave more than 20 million uninsured. And in journalism, word choices are important. Why use the term “safety net” as opposed to, say, entitlement? Because the latter term brings to mind out-of-control costs, while the former just makes you think of happily swinging in a hammock enjoying life.

3. What is $848 billion? That’s the number Reid claims the plan will cost over 10 years. It is a fraudulent number insofar as it leaves out any number of other costs, including a necessary increase in reimbursement for Medicare doctors, which will cost at least $200 billion. Many organizations have done their own studies and concluded the costs will be much, much higher. The Cato Institute has pegged the cost at $6 trillion! But the AP simply reports Reid’s figure as unassailable gospel. Accountability journalism!

4. Who says denying coverage to the sick is an “onerous practice”? Insurance companies have to weigh risk against cost. If everyone can get coverage regardless of their health, then everyone’s costs will go up. Refusing to simply grant everyone coverage on the same level, regardless of health, is a sensible business decision. Make such decisions illegal, you may do many things, but one thing you will certainly not do is control costs, which is what Obama and Reid claim will happen, and what the AP simply accepts unquestioningly.

5. By the time the AP gets to telling us about all the additional protections we’ll gain, it’s basically just writing a marketing brochure for ObamaCare.

The AP doesn’t think there’s any controversy about the awesomeness of ObamaCare. That question is long-since settled in their mind. The only news story, as they see it, is the battle to get it passed, and that’s why they’re so upset that there’s no guarantee of 60 votes.

Poor Democrats! It’s hard to make history, even with the AP cheering you on every step of the way.

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