Attention O'Reilly: Fox hosts were wrong about health insurance jail time last fall... and last week
April 16, 2010 11:50 pm ET by Matt Gertz
Earlier this week, Bill O'Reilly claimed, "[W]e researched to find out if anybody had ever said you are going to jail if you don't buy health insurance. Nobody has ever said it." Media Matters quickly responded, pointing out numerous occasions on which Fox News hosts had done just that. Even O'Reilly's colleague Neil Cavuto acknowledged the next day that "a number of Fox personalities" made the false claim.
But unwilling to admit that he was wrong, O'Reilly returned with more spin, claiming that "Nobody at Fox News reported inaccurately about the Obamacare prison situation. Nobody." According to O'Reilly, "Last fall, when jail time was on the table, Fox News reported on it," but they stopped doing so once "the prison option was taken off the bill when the final Obamacare bill was being debated."
We again responded, noting that those fall Fox reports were false -- the bill they were discussing would not have penalized failure to buy insurance with jail time. It would have penalized failure to have health insurance with a tax, and those who refused to pay that tax could have been subject to "criminal penalties for noncompliance," just like they would be if they failed to pay other types of taxes. We also noted that the Joint Tax Committee stated that fewer than 100 people were convicted for "willful failure to file or pay taxes" in fiscal year 2008, and that "The majority of delinquent taxes and penalties are collected through the civil process."
But it doesn't stop there.
Here's Fox's Bill Hemmer on March 19 -- the day the health care reconciliation package was released -- pushing the debunked myth by asking of the legislation, "Could people be going to jail for not owning health insurance?"
The Joint Committee on Taxation later stated that under the Senate health bill and the reconciliation bill, which both subsequently passed, "individuals who fail to maintain minimum essential [health insurance] coverage in 2016 are subject" to a fee, but that "[n]on-compliance" with that fee "is not subject to criminal or civil penalties." In other words, you cannot be imprisoned for not paying the taxes levied for not having health insurance under the reform law.
That didn't keep Fox Business' Eric Bolling from falsely claiming on April 10 that if you don't have health insurance, the IRS "can fine you $750 or 2 percent of your income, whichever is more. If you don't pay they'll take it out of your refund. And God forbid you don't have a refund and you still don't want to pay they'll probably put you in jail." Watch:
What was it O'Reilly said? Oh, right. "Nobody at Fox News reported inaccurately about the Obamacare prison situation. Nobody."
So, when Bill O'Reilly was trying to DEFEND FoxNews, he needed to address the bad acts of FoxNews that Coburn was referencing.
And FoxNews people lied! They repeatedly repeated falsehoods after there was plenty of evidence that they were falsehoods - saying something that you KNOW is a falsehood IS LYING!
Cite?
He was referencing a comment from an audience member, who said that people who failed to purchase healthcare insurance could be sent to jail.
And WHEN was that talking point pushed? Last fall and winter, that's when.
Bill O'Reilly was pretending that FoxNews hadn't misled its viewers with that lie. They had! They did it last fall and winter.
What part of this is difficult to understand? FoxNews had misled listeners. Saying that they hadn't misled viewers since the bill had passed doesn't negate the misleading that they did BEFORE the bill passed. That was the misleading comments that Sen Coburn was addressing - the REAL, undeniable misleading comments from FoxNews that led this audience member to think that she could be jailed for failing to purchase healthcare insurance!
Yes.
DellDolly:"What part of this is difficult to understand? "
What part of you are a condescending a$$hole is difficult for you to understand?
It is easy to come across as condescending when one is speaking to obstructionist idiots who are trying to use unoriginal and tired tactics to deflect from the truth of arguments ... such as asking for a "cite" when nobody actually pretended to quote any specifics.
A simple understanding of the exchange between Coburn and O'Really makes it clear that the Senator was referring to the totality of Fox News coverage. He said "the woman didn't say when she'd heard it..." and would possibly have given us more information about when EXACTLY he was referring to except O'Really talked over him as he always does to anyone who is not kissing his ass.
The truth is, O'Really is the only one who spoke in specifics about any time line he was referring to...and he did so by stressing the word "NEVER" over and over again while he was advancing his lie over and over again. Now he's twisting and turning like a worm on a hook while trying to claim he was only speaking to specific and very narrow instances of "NEVER".
Riiiight. Sadly Dolly made a dumb statement and was called on it.
I.e There was *no* specific time frame mentioned by Coburn. That's a fact. Feel free to massage it anyway you want, but it won't change.
captain_mike : "speaking to obstructionist idiots who .... asking for a "cite" when nobody actually pretended to quote any specifics."
That's nonsense. DD clearly quoted specifics, and that is what I asked about ...
DellDolly : "Senator Tom Coburn was talking about what FoxNews did last fall and this past winter."
Lets at least try to keep it intellectually honest, okay?
captain_mike:"The truth is, O'Really is the only one who spoke in specifics about any time line"
In this instance,what O'Reilly said is irrelevant. I simply inquired as to what sources DD had for her assertion.
That she responded with jibes and insults is really no surprise I guess, but I had hoped she might be reasonable for once.
I have no idea. You'd have to ask him.
Look there's no need for everyone to pile on. I just asked an honest question, as I'd missed any references to time lines in the video grab. In response, I got an unwarranted nasty & condescending response from the other poster and I responded in kind.
That's a very original tactic... when told the facts and evidence, you adhere to name-calling and personal attacks.
I simply responded in kind to an insulting and rude poster in kind.
Plenty of O'Reilly fodder at my blog Young Politics:
http://youngpoliticsblog.blogspot.com/
Check it out!
So you lied about the lie on the lie... of the... there was another lie in there... uh... oh hell! JUST STOP LYING!!!
**Except the denying, lying denizens of Fox News.