The Colorado Independent criticized Fox News contributor Karl Rove and his political group for twisting its reporting into a misleading attack on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Democratic Sen. Mark Udall.
Rove is the co-founder of Crossroads GPS, an IRS 501(c)(4) group that funds attacks against Democratic candidates across the country. The Associated Press reported on August 19 that GPS plans to spend more than $6 million on television ads in Colorado.
The group's latest Colorado ad attacks incumbent Sen. Udall for supporting health care reform, with a narrator claiming that "on the Eastern Plains, patients now outnumber doctors 5,000 to one." The group cites the Independent for the statistic.
But the news outlet responded that GPS is misrepresenting its work. Reporter Tessa Cheek, whose reporting was quoted by GPS, wrote that the commercial added the word "now" to deceptively suggest the patient-to-doctor ratio is a result of the ACA when in fact it "has nothing to do with the new law":
and this guy gets 501 status??? this is why the IRS targeted them they are liars and have no respect for the law not even the ones they make up as to non profit hard to believe a right wing org. that lives for the money and power it brings are really non profit somebody's leaning to which ever side they stuffed the money in their pocket.
The difference is the word "now," and it's the difference between true and, well, not true, because "now" makes the 5,000-to-one figure look like an outcome of the Affordable Care Act. The figure has nothing to do with the new law.
"All of that data is pre 2014 Affordable Care Act implementation, so pre-Medicaid expansion, pre-ACA rollout," confirmed Rebecca Alderfer, Colorado Health Institute senior analyst and an author of the report we cited in our article about the systemic challenges facing rural health care expansion.
In addition to being unrelated to the ACA time-wise, the figure is also not directly about insurance. Specifically, it reflects the number of primary care doctors in relation to the number of people living in their area. It's not a figure that speaks to the number of insured people or the number of providers who will accept their insurance. Alderfer tells us it's too soon for figures that will tell how the ACA has impacted health care accessibility in rural areas, but that the Institute will have a full report on that -- including figures from the 2014 open enrollment period -- this time next year.
keep in mind this is not just him this is the republican party itself that engages in the same deception, get pissed, show up Nov. 4th they keep saying we won't this is another opportunity to show they lie about us and their politics, and we are not the slackers they count on us to be, that was yesterday, tomorrow we start taking it to 'em and shine your light so others may see.
