Fox News guest: “Jimmy Kimmel has a responsibility, using his platform, to tell people the truth and not engage in propaganda”

Fox News has falsely claimed Obamacare is “government-run health insurance,” that it's in a “death spiral,” that it mandates non-enrollees go to prison, and more

Written by Media Matters Staff

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Frequent Fox guest Dan Bongino appeared on the September 25 edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends and attacked Jimmy Kimmel, host of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, for abdicating his “responsibility, using his platform, to tell people the truth and not engage in propaganda.” In response to Kimmel’s criticism of the Graham-Cassidy health care bill -- the latest Republican effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) -- Bongino claimed that by saying that the bill cuts government spending and “is going to hurt Americans,” Kimmel was pushing “propaganda,” even though Graham-Cassidy would, in fact, cut government spending on health care and hurt Americans. 

As Steve Rattner, former Treasury Department official under the Obama administration, explained on the September 25 edition of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, under the Graham-Cassidy bill, “in 2027, all of the expansion provisions of the Affordable Care Act expire, the subsidies for people who buy on exchanges and the people who buy through Medicare.” Further, the number of people who will lose insurance under Graham-Cassidy “eventually ... goes to 32 million.” 

Bongino could not have picked a better place than Fox News to accuse Kimmel of “propagandizing.” Since the passage of Obamacare, Fox News, along with other right-wing media outlets, has pushed countless myths and falsehoods about the Affordable Care Act. Fox News has falsely claimed that Obamacare is in a “death spiral,” that it is “government-run health insurance,” that it cuts Medicare and taxes seniors’ wheelchairs, that “coverage for pre-existing conditions … basically defeats the whole idea of insurance,” that it is responsible for the opioid epidemic, and that people who refuse Obamacare will go to prison. From the September 25 edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends:

BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): Jimmy Kimmel’s approach to attacking the Republican plan for health care was to go after Sen. [Bill] Cassidy [(R-LA)] personally and some other people, but also, he was coached by [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer [(D-NY)] through the entire process. So he gave him his talking points on late night television. What's your reaction to that?

DAN BONGINO: Yeah, this has really been on my mind lately, and my sympathies are genuinely with Jimmy Kimmel. He's going through an awful situation with his child --

STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): He is.

BONGINO: -- that everyone on the show -- you and I, we have kids. It would be -- I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. But here's the problem, guys. Jimmy Kimmel has a responsibility, using his platform, to tell people the truth and not engage in propaganda. And he keeps saying things like government spending and cutting government spending, and this is going to hurt Americans. Well, he never tells people about all the damage government spending in medicine has done to the health care market. You know why he hasn't done it? Because he just doesn't know. He hasn't done the proper research on the material to go out there and speak about it intelligently. And I'm really angry because people believe Jimmy Kimmel, and they trust him, and frankly, sadly, he just doesn't know what he's talking about. And again, I say that with all due sympathies toward the situation. It's a terrible situation he is in. But that doesn't make him right. It makes him propagandizing.