Sunday, August 2, 2009

An Article Worth Reading

I've seen this article by Jonathan Alter linked to at several other sites, and in case you missed it, thought you might want to check it out too. It pretty nearly matches my own feelings about why health care reform is so necessary. It's frankly shocking to me that there are those in the political establishment (and here party is hardly a factor) who refuse to acknowledge the blatant unfairness of the current system. Maybe change does not solve all the problems (heck, it'd be an incredible miracle if it even came close), but clearly there is a massive amount of room for improvement.

2 comments:

Michael said...

All right, I'll bite... As a reporter, the piece you referred to is nothing more than a columnist's rant. There are little facts, little opposition, little of everything, but witty, antagonistic banter.

I find it curious you cited this piece, but at the same time scream at the media for doing nothing. While I tend to agree with his view, I want some reporting and not free-wheeling, shots from the hip.

John Hajduk said...

Michael,
I guess I could've been clearer that it was a column, not a piece of reportage (I didn't mean to confuse the issue that way). The key point was that Alter has experienced many of the problems that often get shunted aside in the debate, and that is what I found worthwhile about his "rant." I don't recall expressing any particular anger at the media in this debate (do you have something specific in mind? My recent comments about Walter Cronkite?), so much as politicians and other spokesmen who often ignore the kind of stories Alter refers to to push some other agenda. But I would sure be gratified to see-- and I can't say I've done an exhaustive search for-- a straight news story that analyzes the same points (I know that Paul Krugman has done it, but then he's just a columnist too).
Dr. John