Maria Bartiromo's Gross Ignorance on U.S. Health Care System Earns Her BuzzFlash's Media Putz Award
BUZZFLASH MEDIA PUTZ OF THE WEEK
Maria Bartiromo
For reporting that is an embarrassment to the profession of journalism, and for being beholden to corporate paymasters rather than the citizens of America.
Medicare and Medicaid. Okay, so some people do get them mixed up. But most people do know that one of the programs (Medicare) kicks in when you're 65 and one program (Medicaid) applies to those who are poor.
Someone who covers the business world -- even on television -- would know significant nuances about both programs. Or so we thought.
CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo gave us a demonstration on what being ignorant and unprepared looks like, and while it made for entertaining television, the segment made for despicable journalism.
Bartiromo was sitting in alongside an interview with MSNBC's Carlos Watson and Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), doing her best to scare the audience with a scary story from England about how they might not get Erbitux, a cancer drug that costs $38,000 for 16 weeks (according to Bartiromo) under a public option.
While not being experts in the world of Erbitux, the chances of someone with private insurance getting the insurance company to pay for a drug that costs $38,000 for 16 weeks are extremely slim. A Canadian study showed that the drug extended lives by an average of about six weeks compared with not treating the cancer at all.
Under a single payer system, the drug might not cost nearly that much. And we hope sincerely that Bartiromo doesn't get colon or rectum cancer (primary use for Erbitux), because even her celebrity status and the best private insurance may not be enough to get her that medicine.
Rep. Weiner then brings back the conversation to the United States and Medicare. Bartiromo objects to talking about the U.S. because "you have to look at where there are public plans." Uh, Medicare and Medicaid are public plans. Someone who gets paid a lot of money to cover the financial world should realize that money is taken out of paychecks to pay for this.
Rep. Weiner corrects her, noting that 40% of tax dollars go to a public plan. When Weiner points out how much people love Medicare who are on it, Bartiromo's reaction was one for the ages:
"How come you don't use it [Medicare]? You don't have it. How come you don't have it?"
Now Rep. Weiner may not look 25 any more, but the Congressman is 44 years old, turning 45 tomorrow (Happy Birthday, Rep. Weiner), so he's only 20 years and a day short of being eligible.
Rep. Weiner's response: "Because I'm not 65." She came back with, "Yeah... c'mon!" and was laughing for some non-profound reason.
Having a serious discussion about health care in this country should start with the basic knowledge of where we are now. And Bartiromo needs to stay after school and learn the health care equivalent of 3 x 3.
Bartiromo's perception of the U.S. health care system isn't limited to a 68-second segment on YouTube. As Matt Taibbi notes in his recent on-air appearance with her:
So I was surprised when the show started and Bartiromo went on the attack, asking me how I could say America didn’t have the best health care in the world. Everyone, she said, would choose to be treated in America if they could.
I was staggered for a moment, I admit it, because I thought she was kidding at first. We were probably a full minute into the debate before I realized it wasn't a joke. And here’s the really funny part: toward the end of my appearance, I said something about how health care in America is great, if you're an executive at Goldman, Sachs. Then I left the set and… guess who they brought right afterward on to rip me and praise the American health care system? Bartiromo's colleague at CNBC, Erin Burnett, a former Goldman, Sachs executive.
It is the standard practice of most corporate media personnel to stand high to protect the status quo. And Bartiromo certainly does her part to keep the health care system in as poor a shape as it currently exists. The only problem is that her journalistic credibility, on so many levels, takes a beating as a result.
Perhaps Bartiromo could take some of her not well-earned money she makes at CNBC and travel around the United States to learn what people's actual health care experiences really are in the current stage. Bartiromo would discover, if she had the guts to find out, that Americans don’t think we have the best health care in the world, and that they are concerned about far more worrisome issues than whether a $2,375/week medication will be covered that might extend their lives for 6 weeks.
Until then, Maria Bartiromo will have to settle for BuzzFlash's Media Putz of the Week award.
You can see a list of all previous winners here.
BUZZFLASH MEDIA PUTZ OF THE WEEK
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The Money Honey from CNBC
Philosopher?
I went to our local library to get some books on socialist philosophers. Looking under "economic philosophers" guess whos book was listed. That's right, Maria Bartiromo.
How lucky for us that we live in a time when mental giants such as Bartiromo (Hannity was also listed as a "philosopher") still walk the Earth.
Man, I could use a drink.
maria bartiromo
an interesting piece of info...check out maria's father-in-law. does anyone remember saul steinberg & reliance group holdings? in his day he made more money than the head of AIG. reliance was huge news in the 90's & went under around 9/11. our "pal" maria & her family have always exhibited great support for the little people!
But the pay is good
Being assinine is just a part of the job Ms. Bartiromo is doing for her corporate employers. Nothing personal. Listening to those who have sold their souls in our media is nothing new. Money- money- money.
Bartiromo is a stupid brat
She has not matured one bit since I sent MSNBC this comment in Oct. 2008:
"This morning, your conservative commentator from CNBC either was completely uninformed and only reading from Republican talking points or was deliberately dishonest about ANWR, when she stated that any drilling would only affect 2,000 acres. That is equivalent to saying an accurate measure of the acreage of a forest would be just the total cross-sectional area of its tree trunks. Or that the area of a spiderweb cannot include the air spaces in between the strands of webbing. In fact, drill pads would be dispersed across 10s of times as many acres as this “footprint” figure, including hundreds of miles of roads and pipelines. One only has to fly over large portions of the semi-arid Intermountain West today where there are massive gas fields to see the total effect this has on vast landscapes.
Ms. Bartiromo further claimed that Palin is an “expert on energy.” Please! Other than her family of 7 getting an annual check of over $10,000 from the oil revenues, her husband being a wildcatter, and she being a new governor of a state where everyone’s crazy about oil (and that annual check), what is the basis for this reckless claim?!
As usual, no one was there (certainly not the moderator) to challenge these outrageous statements."
MSNBC already has their own full-time bimbo (Mika), and I once thought CNBC could do no worse than the conservative shill, Erin Burnett (whom Joe "Sophomoric" Scarborough calls the "International Superstar"), but they've hit rock bottom with the whiny, bitchy idiot Bartiromo.
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Bartoromo is a stipid brat
She is a perfect example for my idea that your credentials need to be listed on the bottom of the screen while on TV. Sometime around the start of 2008 I saw her on the tube telling us that there will be no problems with a recesion in the US because of all the profits coming back to the U.S. would save us. I sarted yelling at the dumb%#@* "what does the D in GDP stand for!" If she had the smallest bit of knowledge she would know that it stands for domestic and that a recesion is measured by an increase or decrease in GDP. If she had ever looked at the exchange rate for the dollar she would see that a weak dollar increases the amount of dollars when they are repatriated(sent to the USA).