Betsy McCaughey-another day, another RW hack loved by the MSM exposed

[underpants]

Conservative Media Echo Chamber Promotes Right-Wing Health Care Propagandist Betsy McCaughey»

On Monday, former Republican lieutenant governor of New York Betsy McCaughey published a commentary on Bloomberg.com, falsely claiming that health information technology provisions in the economic recovery package will have the government “monitor treatments” in order to “‘guide’ your doctor’s decisions.” “This stimulus is dangerous to your health and the economy,” declared McCaughey.

McCaughey’s inaccurate attack on health IT was quickly picked up by the conservative echo chamber of Rush Limbaugh, the Drudge Report and Fox News. Yesterday and today, McCaughey made appearances on two Fox News shows and Lou Dobbs’ CNN show in order to promote her misinformation. Watch it:

VIDEO compilation-the fact check is at the 1:45 mark and there on

On CNN this morning, senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen fact-checked McCaughey’s claims, finding that the bill “didn’t actually, specifically say” what McCaughey claims it says:

COHEN: Now, we asked Betsy McCaughey, because she’s been through this bill page by page, “point us to the language that says that this bill will dictate what your doctor does,” and she showed us language that didn’t actually, specifically say that. It didn’t say that the government will have the right to dictate what your doctor does. But she says it’s vague enough that the government would be able to do that. And, of course, we ran this by the folks who wrote the bill. They said that any accusations that this bill will allow the government to dictate anything to your doctor, they say those accusations are “wildly inaccurate and preposterous.”

Cohen then explained how investment in health IT would allow doctors to “switch over from those paper records that most of them use to electronic records,” which “many say are much more efficient and allow for much more patient safety.”
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/02/11/betsy-health-it/


And then of course there is this
Who is McCaughey? In 1994, she was a key player in the attacks against the Clinton health care plan, writing a a “viciously inaccurate” article in The New Republic that claimed the plan would lock people in to government-run care. This claim was “simply false,” but it “completely distorted the debate on the biggest public policy issue of 1994.”

[underpants]

1. Check out her email address

To contact the writer of this column: Betsy McCaughey at [e-mail] <--- Betsy ROSS????

Here is the email I sent her today. No reply yet.

In your February 9 Opinion piece "Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan" you state the following

Hidden Provisions
The stimulus bill will affect every part of health care, from medical and nursing education, to how patients are treated and how much hospitals get paid. The bill allocates more funding for this bureaucracy than for the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force combined (90-92, 174-177, 181).

Forgive me for not being able to read through this bill and understand it fully. That is why I am contacting you. Is this claim about funding for the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology in comparison to funding for the "Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force combined" in regards to this legislation specifically or total funding?

Thank you for your time and consideration.

[depakid]

2. America's culture of lies in action

Not much is going to change on the policy front until the corporate media is divested and re-regulated.

[Stephanie]

3. WRT to the post above, Ross comes from her ex-husband, billionaire steel magnate Wilbur Ross

Wilbur Ross financed Betsy's campaigns here in NY and she became Lt. Governor under Pataki, who booted her to the curb four years later. She was known for bizarre behavior, such as standing in protest for the duration of Pataki's State of the State address. After the Republicans dumped her, she decided to run for governor as a Democrat. But Wilbur Ross refused to finance her campaign anymore so she was forced to withdraw. Then he divorced her. She is batshit crazy, as everyone in New York well knows.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betsy_McCaughey_Ross

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9505E0DA113FF93BA25757C0A961958260&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

[underpants]

4. Okay thanks for the clarification

I guess no one on any of those shows checked to see if this office already existed-it did
or what it would do-as CNN finally did