After a rough week for Democrats attempting to radically reform the American healthcare system, Obamacare has been dealt yet another blow by one of its closest allies - the mainstream media. Has President Obama given up on an October deadline for healthcare reform?

Multiple sources - including The Washington Post’s Ceci Connolly and ABC News‘ Jake Tapper - have attributed the following quote to President Obama in stories on healthcare reform and an agreement reached with drug companies to drastically reduce the costs of prescriptions for seniors.

“The agreement reached today to lower prescription drug costs for seniors will be an important part of the legislation I expect to sign into law in December,” Obama said in a statement this afternoon. “This is a tangible example of the type of reform that will lower costs while assuring quality health care for every American.”

These reporters clearly paraphrase the following quote currently posted in the Briefing Room section of WhiteHouse.gov.

“The agreement reached today to lower prescription drug costs for seniors will be an important part of the legislation I expect to sign into law in October. I want to commend House chairmen Henry Waxman, George Miller and Charles Rangel for addressing this issue in the health reform legislation they unveiled this week. This is a tangible example of the type of reform that will lower costs while assuring quality health care for every American”.

So, why does the White House statement say October where the media has been reporting December for several days now?

Was this a case of lazy reporting where one source misquoted the White House press release? Did the White House share an internal decision with the wrong journalists? Did the White House issue and then reissue a redacted press statement from the President?

HealthcareHorserace.com continues to seek the facts behind this potential reporting gaffe by ABC News and The Washington Post. We should point out however that Connolly and Tapper are seasoned Washington journalists which makes it incredibly unlikely the gaffe was theirs.

One thing we do know is that given the events of past week - which included a Congressional Budget Office report tearing apart Ted Kennedy’s Affordable Health Choices Act; a decision by Max Baucus to table draft healthcare reform legislation in the Senate Finance Committee; and liberal California Senator Dianne Feinstein coming out against the current legislative thinking behind Obamacare - an October deadline is looking less realistic by the day.

Tags: ABC News, Barack Obama, Ceci Connolly, Congressional Budget Office, Dianne Feinstein, drug companies, healthcare reform, Jake Tapper, Max Baucus, Senate Finance Committee, Ted Kennedy, Washington Post

This entry was posted on Monday, June 22nd, 2009 at 2:16 pm and is filed under Eye on the Media, Horserace. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.