Pitchfork Populists Play Press for Putzes

Pitchfork Populists Play Press for Putzes -- Again

Mary Sanchez

The shame of the health care reform debate is not that citizens are coming unglued -- although some of them certainly are.

It's that the media can't seem to get enough of the outbursts of a handful of vocal people at town hall meetings across the country. We seem to have lost our way, suckered into showing the footage over and over again, so that the protests are the story, period.

Seriously, if I see one more airing of the Sen. Arlen Specter being dressed down by that finger-waving constituent, or yet another showing of Sen. Claire McCaskill's wounded "You don't trust me?" to handful of hecklers ... well, I just might go a bit rabid myself.

I think I've seen this movie before. I liked it better when it was called "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth."

Now we have heartland activists bellowing about "socialized medicine," about the incipient "Obama Police State" that is somehow socialistic and fascistic at the same time, and about "death panels" itching to kill off the old and infirm.

And now Democrats, who ought to be holding firm with measured sanity, are beginning to become prickly in return. "There is more anger in America today than at any time I can remember," Specter said mournfully.

Seriously? More than the heated backlash of protests during the Vietnam War? A few over-hyped YouTube airings of citizens acting stupidly is more dramatic than what the country felt after Watergate, or for that matter after 9/11?

Granted, the tenor of your typical conservative gathering is a good deal more shrill these days. The ugliness we saw during last year's presidential campaign is now admixed with a great deal more frustration. Yet the oxygen-sucking displays of passion are hardly representative of the town hall meetings. Look closely at many tapes, and you'll see calmer citizens quietly waiting for the commotion to end.

Such a stepped-back perspective is important. For every momentarily crazed person seeking their 15 minutes of notoriety, thousands more are simply concerned and confused about what might happen to their health care -- the care so many can't afford now -- and how much reform will cost. For the sake of these citizens, Democrats have to stay in this conversation.

The same day that U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore of Kansas announced he wouldn't hold large town hall meetings with his constituents, thousands of people lined up in Los Angeles for the promise of free mammograms, blood pressure checks and basic immunizations.

And a bipartisan reform bill in the works will not include Medicare coverage for advance care planning -- you know, the consultations some are calling a slippery slope to euthanasia. In reality, such planning is simply conversations between patients and their doctors about the type of care the patients desire as they age and become afflicted with diseases. These consultations benefit patients, their families, hospitals and medical staff, and -- frankly -- society as a whole.

To retreat from covering these consultations, just on the basis of completely baseless and, ultimately, politically inspired fear, is sad beyond words.

Yes, the public can be vile to people in the political arena -- horribly rude and threatening. You want crazy? Listen to my voicemail messages on any given day.

And that's what bothers me about the abdication of our media. We are not calling these protests and accusations what they are on page one and at the top of every broadcast. We treat them as a "side" of the argument, and dignify them with our refusal to say that a lie is a lie, and that a liar is a liar.

Will the antics of a few be allowed to undermine crucial reforms that could serve the nation well for decades to come? It will be if the press continues to provide validation for hot air breathers seeking not to inspire sound questioning of policy but rather to inflate their own self-righteous egos.

(Mary Sanchez is an opinion-page columnist for The Kansas City Star.

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