Inside the Beltway

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By Jennifer Harper INSIDE THE BELTWAY

Tale wagging

The press is an excitable bunch. They bay like hounds, or turn into a pack of curs should their prey appear weak or wounded. And if there is no jumping and biting involved, journalists often resort to chasing their tails and making meaningless yipping sounds.

The tail-chasing is particularly worrisome. It means the journalists have become bored.

This is a frequent occurrence when they are faced with a topic that does not present a ready conclusion. Whirling after their own derrieres, the news media will work themselves into crisis mode, producing coverage that is alarmist and shrill. Global warming, epidemics, celebrity deaths and political scandal have all warranted such treatment.

And now the press is also reporting the American health care system as a "crisis" situation.

Consider that a recent poll conducted by the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and Zogby International finds that 84 percent of Americans — including 46 percent of Americans without health care insurance — are "very satisfied" or "satisfied" with the health care they currently receive.

The poll didn't get much play in the press.

"The media need to stop acting like arsonists when it comes to their reporting on the U.S. health care system, starting a fire and then suggesting to put it out the government takeover of a fifth of our economy," says Brent Bozell, director of the Media Research Center.

"There is no health care crisis. The American people are overwhelmingly satisfied with the health care they currently receive. The media should report this instead of helping incite for the socialist solution — the government making our most vital life and death health decisions," Mr. Bozell continues.

"The real crisis here is the crisis of confidence that the American people have in the media. The press need to stop creating calamities where there are none, and instead do what they are charged with doing — reporting the facts."