Richard Tafoya
Jun 16th, 2009, 04:20 PM
Washington Monthly:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_06/018642.php
A week from tomorrow, President Obama will sit down with ABC News' Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer for a prime-time discussion on health care policy. It's scheduled to be called "Questions for the President: Prescription for America."
It doesn't seem like the kind of interview/forum that would spark a controversy. A national debate on health care policy is beginning; Americans have concerns; and the president is apparently anxious to explore this in more depth. Gibson and Sawyer will no doubt ask plenty of pointed questions, and Obama will have plenty of GOP talking points to respond to. What's more, ABC, in addition to the assembled audience, will reportedly work with Digg to let viewers have input into which questions get asked.
Sounds like a reasonable approach to a major policy debate? Well, it depends on who you ask.
The RNC and conservative blogs in general are outraged (http://www.memeorandum.com/090616/p33#a090616p33) by the discussion. Drudge insisted earlier that ABC is "turn its programming over to President Obama and White House officials to push government run health care," adding that "the media and government [will] become one."
Republican National Committee Chief of Staff Ken McKay wrote to ABC News last night, calling the health care discussion with Obama "astonishing," because viewers will be hearing from the president, and not members of the congressional minority party. McKay suggested the program may "become a glorified infomercial to promote the Democrat [[I]sic] agenda" (yes, even in formal correspondence, the RNC uses incorrect grammar, on purpose) and demanded that "the Republican Party ... be included in this primetime event."
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_06/018642.php
A week from tomorrow, President Obama will sit down with ABC News' Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer for a prime-time discussion on health care policy. It's scheduled to be called "Questions for the President: Prescription for America."
It doesn't seem like the kind of interview/forum that would spark a controversy. A national debate on health care policy is beginning; Americans have concerns; and the president is apparently anxious to explore this in more depth. Gibson and Sawyer will no doubt ask plenty of pointed questions, and Obama will have plenty of GOP talking points to respond to. What's more, ABC, in addition to the assembled audience, will reportedly work with Digg to let viewers have input into which questions get asked.
Sounds like a reasonable approach to a major policy debate? Well, it depends on who you ask.
The RNC and conservative blogs in general are outraged (http://www.memeorandum.com/090616/p33#a090616p33) by the discussion. Drudge insisted earlier that ABC is "turn its programming over to President Obama and White House officials to push government run health care," adding that "the media and government [will] become one."
Republican National Committee Chief of Staff Ken McKay wrote to ABC News last night, calling the health care discussion with Obama "astonishing," because viewers will be hearing from the president, and not members of the congressional minority party. McKay suggested the program may "become a glorified infomercial to promote the Democrat [[I]sic] agenda" (yes, even in formal correspondence, the RNC uses incorrect grammar, on purpose) and demanded that "the Republican Party ... be included in this primetime event."