Fort Worth Star-Telegram editor apologizes for deceptive anti-Obamacare story
Source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram
By Jim Witt, executive editor of the Star-Telegram
... This weekend a national healthcare blogger accused the Star-Telegram of leaving out pertinent information in a story about the trouble people were having getting insurance under the Affordable Care Act.
... Conservative national radio show host Sean Hannity saw the story and had one of the women we wrote about on his show in the next few days, and House Speaker John Boehner tweeted the story to his followers.
Blogger Maggie Mahar writes for healthinsurance.org, and in a two-part post over this past weekend she criticized the Star-Telegram for doing what she considered a poor job of fact-checking the story before publication.
... One of the women quoted in the story, Whitney Johnson, told us Monday that, although she is not a member of the Tea Party, her mother is the founder of the Parker County Tea Party chapter. Johnson also wrote a letter to the Concerned Women For America that appeared on the Tea Party website, in which she makes her feelings about the Affordable Care Act pretty clear.
... Knowing the background of the person quoted can give readers important clues about someone’s motives, but you didn’t learn that from reading our story, because we neglected to investigate the background of the people we quoted. That’s something you learn to do in Journalism 101. I remember my old professor saying “If your mother says she loves you … check it out.”
Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/01/06/5464749/star-telegram-report-on-affordable.html?rh=1
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