White House Attempts to Counter Health Care Misconceptions

If you want to defeat a legislative proposal, the absolute best messaging tactic you can adopt is just to lie about. Mainstream media coverage of your lies will often treat them as credible simply because the lies are being offered. At worst, the occasional “fact check” item will slap you on the wrist, but inevitably will need to come up with some way to define the other side as being just as bad. Under no circumstances will you get headlines like “Senator So-and-So Lies About Health Care.” And so doubts get planted in people’s minds.

Thus far, nobody’s really quite sure how you beat back a concerted campaign of deception. But the White House is trying with with this Health Care Reality Check website.

Something I would underline, however, is that creating a better-informed citizenry is really something that people who care need to undertake as a personal responsibility. Once someone becomes convinced that Barack Obama has a secret plan to euthenize their mother, Obama saying “no I don’t” isn’t going to un-convince them. After all, that’s exactly what Obama would say if he did have a secret “death committee” plan. A personal message from a friend, relative, or coworker is likely to have more impact. Similarly, media organizations are much more likely to get their act together if they’re hearing from readers and viewers. You can’t just despair about the state of things, you need to actually try to do something about it.