How long did you have to read before you found out the House Democrats’ health care bill was not a crowd-pleaser on both sides of the aisle as well as in the general public?
Standard news writing has a format for an announcement like this: a catchy introduction, several paragraphs of exposition – more if it’s a complicated issue like a 1,000-page health care reform bill – quotes from supporters, and then the opposition.
In principal reporting on the House health care reform bill, exposition and support ran long – the shortest clocking in at 166 words, all the way up to 338. That’s a long read before many reporters even let you know there was another side to the coin.
The Wall Street Journal article Small Business Faces Big Bite took the least amount of time to get down to business - 166 words of background before providing feedback from the National Federation of Independent Businesses.
Writers Janet Adamy and Laura Meckler begin, “House Democrats on Tuesday unveiled sweeping health-care legislation that would hit all but the smallest businesses with a penalty equal to 8% of payroll if they fail to provide health insurance to workers.
“This bill costs too much, it covers too few and it has way too much government involvement,” NFIB lobbyist Michelle Dimarob is quoted. “Small business doesn’t want any of those things.”
William Douglas, writing for McClatchy’s Miami Herald provided 177 exposition in House Democrats propose surtax on rich to pay for health care before providing a canned comment from House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio calling the Dems plan “criminal malpractice” that would “destroy more American jobs.”
In USA Today, a traditionally short-form publication, How much health care for $1 trillion? puts the opposition below word 179.
USA Today filed a separate cold-water story, House Dems’ health bill would tax rich by John Fritze, - filed under health and behavior
CNN’s House Democrats unveil health care reform plan gets to the opposition after 220 words on the bill and quotes from backers.
CNN then turned the mike over to House Republicans Roy Blunt ( R-Missouri), who offered “an amendment requiring all elected federal officials, including Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, to enroll in the new public insurance option.”
The Washington Post wins the rambling exposition award, with 338 words before the critique – including support from Dems in Congress and the White House
In Health reform would tax the rich and near-rich, the more conservative Washington Times’ writer Jennifer Haberkorn gives 205 words of exposition, but with many grains of salt thrown in.
She opens in classic Times style - opposition - with a “What does it mean to you” twist.
Americans would face new requirements to obtain health insurance or face hefty tax penalties as part of a $1.5 trillion health care reform plan introduced by House Democrats on Tuesday that will be paid for, in part, by a new 5.4 percent tax on the wealthiest Americans.
Employers would have to provide coverage to employees or face penalties of their own under the 1,018-page bill, released by Democratic leaders
The equally-conservative Washington Examiner left principal reporting, House Democrats look to medical providers, employers and the wealthy for health care dollars, to AP Erica Werner’s flawed report, saving their in-house staff for an attack article.
House Democratic leaders, pledging to meet the president’s goal of health care legislation before their August break, are offering a $1.5 trillion plan that for the first time would make health care a right and a responsibility for all Americans. Left to pick up most of the tab were medical providers, employers and the wealthy.
No other outlet used the outdated $1.5 trillion price tag from original estimates - Congress whittled down the price to $1.04 trillion.
It’s unclear whether Werner’s original report follows the script or if it was re-tooled by Examiner editors to skew more conservative. The story abandons exposition altogether to focus on the horserace ahead – Obama ads, Senate strategy – and inserts subtle hints at Republican opposition and seemingly redundant references to the “liberal leaning plan.”
The Boston Globe all but ignored the release of the house bill, choosing to focus instead on a story about a closing rock radio station.
Tags: AP, Boston Globe, CNN, health care reform, Miami Herald, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Washington Examiner, Washington Post, Washington Times
