Hours after Fox corrected the record, Beck perpetuates falsehood about doctor "survey"
On his Fox News show, Glenn Beck falsely claimed that The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) said that 46 percent of primary care physicians would consider leaving their profession if the Democrats' health care reform bill passes. In fact, as Fox News' Megyn Kelly had noted three hours earlier, the NEJM did not conduct the "survey" -- which was "not a scientific poll."
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Beck falsely attributed survey to NEJM
Beck falsely claimed NEJM "says ... nearly one-third of doctors will quit" if bill passes. On the March 17 edition of his Fox News show, Beck falsely claimed that "The New England Journal of Medicine says that if this bill is passed nearly one-third of doctors will quit practice medicine -- quit practicing medicine."
As Fox's Kelly noted, "survey" was not conducted by NEJM and was "not a scientific poll"
Kelly: Survey, which was "not a scientific poll," "was conducted by the Medicus Firm ... a national physician search firm." On the March 17 edition of Fox News' America Live, host Kelly noted that the survey "was conducted by the Medicus Firm, which is a national physician search firm." She added: "The New England Journal of Medicine, which was originally responsible for posting, not publishing, but -- not conducting the survey, but for posting it on its website -- later removed it. It's not a scientific poll; it's a survey."
Spokeswoman confirmed survey has nothing to do with NEJM's "original research" and "was not published" by Journal. Media Matters for America contacted NEJM and received confirmation from spokeswoman Jennifer Zeis that the study had "nothing to do with the New England Journal of Medicine's original research." Zeis also made clear that the study "was not published by the New England Journal of Medicine." In fact, the Medicus Firm conducted the survey in December 2009. Medicus, a Dallas- and Atlanta-based firm that recruits and places physicians in jobs was responsible for conducting the survey. It issued a press release about the results on December 17, 2009. The report then appeared in Recruiting Physicians Today, an employment newsletter produced by the Massachusetts Medical Society, "the publishers of the New England Journal of Medicine."
Other Fox personalities have perpetuated the falsehood
Several Fox News personalities have made the false claim about the survey. Before correcting the record, Kelly herself had previously falsely attributed the survey to the NEJM. Others who have made the claim include:
- Host Bill O'Reilly, who claimed on March 16 that the survey was "published by The New England Journal of Medicine, a prestigious magazine."
- Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade, who said on March 17 that the NEJM "published a report and did a survey" that found doctors "feel reform will force them out."
- Host Sean Hannity, who, on the March 16 edition of his show, asked Milton Wolf, a radiologist who says he is President Obama's second cousin, "Will this plan that they're now pushing, and I think in a very corrupt way, do you believe this will harm and -- if you believe so, how greatly will it harm our health care system?" Wolf replied: "We just learned from The New England Journal of Medicine that a significant percentage of doctors would consider leaving -- seriously consider leaving the profession if this went through."
- Fox News contributor Dr. Marc Siegel, who, on the March 16 edition of Fox News' Your World, stated: "First of all, the [American Medical Association] is a bureaucratic organization that doesn't represent practicing doctors. A new study in The New England Journal of Medicine says that one-third of physicians would consider quitting or retiring early if this goes through."
Had they done that, they wouldn't have classified it as they did.
What's clear is that they didn't vet it.
Why not?
Because they're not a legit news organization, that's why.
BTW, did anyone catch Bret Baier's interview of President Obama? He was SO rude, interrupting him, and even after Obama made it clear that he wasn't done and made it even MORE clear that he was NOT going to stop talking, Baier just kept on. It was disgusting.
It was FoxNews.
And yes, I chuckled while watching that interview because Baier must have thought that it looked good from his point of view or something. He just wanted Obama to look bad, and he failed miserably. He would ask a loaded question, Obama would start to explain an answer and then Baier would ask another loaded question (practically yelling over Obama). I thought journalists were supposed to ask questions to find answers, not just to try to make the interviewee look bad. Hey, at least Obama maintained his composure and showed candor even though Baier couldn't reciprocate.
It was obvious the readers had NO CLUE what the public option meant or perhaps more to the point, the survey did not define what Public Option meant. The Public Option makes not one whit of difference in the practice of medicine nor one's compensation.
Our company makes medical devices. We work with surgeons in US, Canada and Europe. The typical comments we hear are amazement from Europeans about the disinformation concerning their highly effective health care systems. (Most of our R&D is from Europe.) Americans who travel to conferences are quick to complain about complicated and unpredictable US insurance reimbursement.
“A new poll that should cause significant concerns for backers of the pro-abortion Senate health care bill finds nearly half the nation's physicians would consider quitting if the bill becomes law. The survey, appearing in the New England Journal of Medicine, indicates 46 percent of doctors would consider leaving their practice.”
http://www.lifenews.com/nat6137.html
Is Media Matters going to go after Life News, also? Or just attack Fox News?