Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Dylan Ratigan Barbecues Health Care Lobbyist

Starting at 4:50 of this clip is a very interesting exchange between a lobbyist and Dylan Ratigan over the illegal monopoly status of health insurers. Another case of our government not enforcing antitrust laws. Ratigan's exchange is a reminder of why such power was granted to the press in the Constitution - to educate and inform society. If anyone argues the American people are uninformed, I would first argue that most people don't have the time to become experts on every political issue. We elect politicians as protectors of our way of life and they have clearly defrauded us across a number of major issues. Additionally, the press has failed us, mostly because of politicians who dismantled the checks and balances of a free press. The American people are taking care of the issue themselves as every mainstream news source is in financial crisis. Why? Because they don't deliver a product the American people want. Tranform or die.

The lobbyist in this exchange looks like the cat that swallowed the canary.

This dialogue brings to light a substantially larger issue. Can we imagine if every journalist and every source of media was so demanding of public officials and the political machine? Corrupting elements in our society would be marginalized. Only politicians with a virtuous agenda would get any "air time". Those espousing morally bankrupt positions would never seek a public voice because their position would be indefensible. We would then have debates of substance instead of the Animal House exchanges we generally see on media outlets like CNBC.

Hopefully Dylan Ratigan is representative of a new type of journalism taking root in this country while the good ole boys club takes a permanent vacation. Ratigan has more than redeemed himself for his temporary insanity on tout tv.

posted by TimingLogic at 12:10 PM