20071010 NewsBusters: Baltimore Sun Smears Conservative Bloggers Over SCHIP Scrutiny

20071010 NewsBusters: Baltimore Sun Smears Conservative Bloggers Over SCHIP Scrutiny

Newsbusters: Baltimore Sun Smears Conservative Bloggers Over SCHIP Scrutiny

How dare anyone question the moral authority of the Baltimore Sun? I’m shocked. Shocked I say.

By Ken Shepherd | October 10, 2007

On September 29, 2007, Baltimore 12-year old Graeme Frost became the Democratic poster child, literally, for SCHIP. Frost read the Democratic Party's official response to the president's weekly radio address, attacking President Bush for his veto of a Democratic-sponsored bill to balloon federal spending on the 10-year old program.

The Baltimore Sun ran a story that morning noting young Graeme Frost's brush with political football history, and two days earlier ran a gauzy profile on Graeme's mom and dad and their push for the Democratic SCHIP expansion here. But now that conservative bloggers have been raising questions about the portrayal by Democrats and the Baltimore Sun of the family's financial plight, the Sun is hitting back by attacking conservatives bloggers as heartless and obsessive, Michelle Malkin noted on her blog.

[…]

Yet following blogger inquiries and the subsequent liberal blog outlash, the Sun is sharpening its knives for conservative bloggers who dared to question the Frost photo-op, complained Michelle Malkin in an update to her October 9 post, "Democrat poster-child abuse, the nutroots’ pushback, and the continued campaign to silence the Right" (emphasis mine):

Update 11:50am Eastern 10/10. Here’s the Baltimore Sun’s nutroots-approved follow-up piece on the Frost family, using a single, rotten comment by a stupid RedState commenter to tar all conservative bloggers as hatemongers.

Read the entire post here: Baltimore Sun Smears Conservative Bloggers Over SCHIP Scrutiny

The State Children's Health Insurance Program, developed by the Republican-led Congress in 1997 is a worthy program.

It’s the expansion of the program into the economic demographic that many feel “ought to” be able to prioritize their finances in such a manner to provide their family with health insurance that is the rub.

Rolling out the 12-year-old to advocate for the program was cringe worthy – and ill advised. It smacked of manipulative exploitation. The line: "I don't know why President Bush wants to stop kids who really need help from getting CHIP…,” in particular stuck in the crawl of many folks.

That being said, it was a brilliant move by the liberals. A child’s compelling story illustrating the benefits of a social welfare program was an inspired strategy. Perhaps the smartest thing folks could’ve done would have been to ignore the child and the family and stuck with the merits of the issue. Concede that the liberals out-maneuvered conservatives in that inning – and concentrate on the next inning.

Indeed, my view is to leave the family alone and concentrate on the merits of the issue. Do we as a nation really want to expand a social welfare program to underwrite folks who otherwise may very well be in a position to pay for the service on their own? And is it one more step in the direction of socialized government-run health care?

As for the Baltimore Sun, the paper practically invented character assassination and drive-by mayhem with any position for which the paper disagrees. So the sanctimonious dismay over folks challenging the paper’s position is well accepted as disingenuous.

Can you imagine what the paper would have done to the family of a 12 –year-old who would have taken a national position advocating a conservative cause?

I have no problem with the paper taking a position. My problem is that the paper contends that it is not biased and the view of many is that it is a newsletter for liberal causes and the Maryland and National Democratic Parties.

The approach of the Baltimore Sun has equally been brilliant.

OMG – please take a look at the “Dorothea Lange – Walter Evans” genre picture taken by (one of the best photographers in the business) Barbara Haddock Taylor to accompany the Matthew Hay Brown, October 10, 2007 Baltimore Sun article, “Frost family draws ire of conservatives.”

The only improvement that could’ve happened is perhaps the Baltimore Sun should’ve printed the picture in black and white – and one could have not been able to tell the difference between the Ms. Taylor photo and a Dorothea Lange classic depression era photo-documentary.

The articles by Mr. Brown have been extraordinarily well written.

More when I get a chance…

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