We’ve pulled together excerpts from some reviews of yesterday’s health care summit and its television coverage.
AP’s David Bauder:
Obama put together a production of government in the television age, a health care reality show. He used his platform to direct discussion on the specifics of reform, cut off opponent posturing and make points of his own. Yet he was only a host-not a producer-and television networks eager to cover it at first lost interest as time went on.
Advertisement
WaPo’s Howie Kurtz:
Few Americans will have watched all six hours. Even those of us who are paid to follow such things had trouble keeping our eyelids propped open as the statistics flew back and forth. There were good discussions, to be sure, but the conversation kept swinging around to each party’s broadsides: Obamacare is desperately needed to rescue the system and cut the deficit (D); it’s a big-government monstrosity that would bankrupt the country (R). Let’s start over. Let’s not.
“The Daily Show”:
Times Online’s Chris Ayres:
Warning: watching American politicians argue about healthcare can be seriously damaging to your health. Symptoms may include migraines, extreme fatigue and sudden violent urges. In the event of exposure to competing statistics – regarding “donut holes”, “HMO deductibles”, “reconciliation devices” or suchlike – seek immediate medical help.
Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey
For those who thought today’s summit was a carefully-laid trap for Republicans set by Barack Obama, let me ask this: How many networks would have carried the following argument by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) had he made it on the steps of the Capitol? It likely wouldn’t have been aired even in passing on the talking-head -cable network shows.
NYTimes’ Alessandra Stanley
For the most part it was, as Mr. Obama said he had feared, political theater, but that made for good television: not a lively romp, for sure, but a long and instructive spectacle, a C-Span version of Tom Stoppard’s “Coast of Utopia.”
President Barack Obama:
“I don’t know if it’s interesting to watch on TV,” Obama said, “but it’s interesting being a part of it.”