{"id":20384,"date":"2014-08-31T14:12:21","date_gmt":"2014-08-31T21:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=20384"},"modified":"2014-08-31T15:16:40","modified_gmt":"2014-08-31T22:16:40","slug":"fox-nation-vs-reality-night-of-the-living-death-panels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=20384","title":{"rendered":"Fox Nation vs. Reality: Night Of The Living Death Panels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thank you Sarah Palin. You have managed to poison the public discourse with an utterly insipid and dishonest notion that has attained a measure of immortality due to the persistent ignorance of your followers and the spinelessness of your Tea Party Republican comrades.<\/p>\n

\"Night<\/p>\n

That’s right, folks. The Death Panels are baaack. And with no more legitimacy now than when they were first peddled by Palin (who actually stole the idea from wingnut Betsy McCaughey). Of course it is Fox News who is reprising this zombie lie which they had a substantial part in promoting the last time around. This year’s model is back in the news thanks to Fox Nation, the lie-riddled community website whose aversion to the truth is documented in the acclaimed ebook Fox Nation vs. Reality<\/a>. Their story carries the tabloid-esque headline “Death Panels? Medicare May Start Covering \u2018End-Of-Life Discussions\u2019”<\/em> That phony characterization is a long stretch from the New York Times article<\/a> to which they link that doesn’t mention death panels in their headline at all: “Coverage for End-of-Life Talks Gaining Ground.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Fox<\/p>\n

The news in this story is that, despite being jettisoned by a nervous Congress, coverage for end-of-life counseling is being taken up by insurance companies on their own as a result of prodding from doctors. That’s because it makes good sense and benefits the patient. It is not an economic issue because, depending on the patient’s desires, health care may cost more (if the patient opts for every life-saving procedure available) or less (if the patient chooses to forego artificial methods of sustaining life).<\/p>\n

From the beginning, the death panel term was a perversion of what the actual policy provided. It merely stipulated insurance coverage for voluntary discussions between the patient and the doctor to determine the patient’s wishes in the event of a catastrophic illness. Most medical professionals recommend this because, after an illness strikes, you may not be able to make your preferences known. That leaves it to either the doctors or traumatized family members who often disagree. But the completion of an “Advance Directive”<\/em> always represents your wishes and never imposes any medical care, or lack of it, on the patient.<\/p>\n

Tea Party nut cases took the position that you should not be able to have your insurance cover the preparation of such a directive in consultation with your doctor. They irrationally feared that “end-of-life counseling”<\/em> was coded language that, when translated by enlightened wingnuts, meant “plotting to kill you.”<\/em> It’s too bad that such stupidity isn’t covered under ObamaCare. And even though some right-wingers recognized that their misrepresentation of end-of-life counseling was making them look ridiculous, when they adjusted their rhetoric they just switched to a different policy, the Independent Payment Advisory Board, and called that a death panel. They were still wrong. The IPAB was a doctor-run advisory group tasked with identifying the best practices in health care to insure the best outcomes and to avoid unnecessary or exploitative procedures.<\/p>\n

When the ultra-conservative National Review agrees<\/a> that “Insuring End-of-Life Talk [is] Not Death Panels,”<\/em> then the distance Fox News has traveled from reality becomes ever more clear. They simply don’t care about honestly dispensing information, even when people’s lives depend upon it. And they persist with their campaigns of disinformation even after other conservative outlets have abandoned them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thank you Sarah Palin. You have managed to poison the public discourse with an utterly insipid and dishonest notion that has attained a measure of immortality due to the persistent ignorance of your followers and the spinelessness of your Tea Party Republican comrades. That’s right, folks. The Death Panels are baaack. And with no more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Fox Nation vs. Reality: Night Of The Living Death Panels http:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-5iM","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1,361,8],"tags":[527,33,1142,381],"class_list":["post-20384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-healthcare","category-propaganda","tag-fox-nation","tag-fox-news","tag-healthcare","tag-sarah-palin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnation-reality-night-death-panels.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-5iM","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":29171,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=29171","url_meta":{"origin":20384,"position":0},"title":"Sarah Palin Stars In Night Of The Living Death Panels Sequel: The Re-Dumbification","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/11\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Now that Sarah Palin has been unceremoniously jettisoned from her Fox News post, she has deemed it necessary to whip up as much controversy as possible in order to keep from becoming nothing more than a creepy memory and the reason for John McCain's eternal damnation to Hell. That's why\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sarah Palin Death Panels","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/palin-living-death-panels.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/palin-living-death-panels.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/palin-living-death-panels.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10529,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=10529","url_meta":{"origin":20384,"position":1},"title":"Comical Weapon: Sarah Palin\/Fox News Cling To ‘Death Panel’ Lies","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/10\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"You have to give Sarah Palin credit for perseverance. It was four years ago that Palin invented the notion that the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) contained an ominous provision for something she called \"Death Panels.\" At the time she was referring to a section of the bill that provided reimbursement\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10343,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=10343","url_meta":{"origin":20384,"position":2},"title":"Sarah Palin Can’t Help Making A Buffoon Of Herself (With Help From Fox News)","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/10\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Sarah Palin appeared on the Fox News Saturday program \"Cashin' In\" to discuss her twisted perceptions of the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare), and the imaginary \"death panels\" she is obsessed with. Like News Corpse On Facebook Palin was asked by wingnut host Eric Bolling if she felt vindicated by the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33864,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=33864","url_meta":{"origin":20384,"position":3},"title":"GOP Official Is Booed After Resurrecting ‘Death Panels’ Lie – Then Calls Citizens ‘Children’","author":"Mark NC","date":"2\/11\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The American people are turning out in droves to protest the fumbling new administration of Donald Trump. Town hall meetings across the country have been packed with citizens expressing their outrage. The topics of concern cover everything from Trump's Muslim ban to Congress' do-nothing stance on Trump's ties to Vladimir\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"GOP Death Panel Town Hall","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/gop-death-panels-town-hall.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/gop-death-panels-town-hall.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/gop-death-panels-town-hall.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6648,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=6648","url_meta":{"origin":20384,"position":4},"title":"Fox Nation’s War on Women: Sarah Palin vs. Jane Fonda","author":"Mark NC","date":"3\/12\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I am now firmly convinced that the Fox Nation web site is edited by a high school intern. When you consider the absurdly hyperbolic verbs that animate their headlines (i.e. \"Cheney\u2019s Daughter Annihilates MSNBC Anchor\"), and their infantile pet names for people they don't like (i.e. \"Pig\" Maher), the only\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4901,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=4901","url_meta":{"origin":20384,"position":5},"title":"Fox Nation vs. Reality: On Sarah Palin Undefeated","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/15\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The reality challenged Fox Nationalists have done it again. 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