I noticed in Thursday’s paper, 1/3/2008, (page A2), that a new Reader’s Representative has been installed at the HC. His name is Steve Jetton, and he can be e-mailed at
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I don’t know how long Steve’s been there, but I see he’s already hard at work correcting spelling, noting omissions in stories, etc., (you know, the real important stuff, as opposed to making sure that HC readers get a fair representation of facts and opinions). I can think of a more appropriate title, but we’ll wait to see what Steve does.
James Howard Gibbons is Editor of the “Opinion Pages”, which is good if you’re a liberal hack. Here’s a good example of how it works:
On 1/2/2008 HC ran a piece on the op-ed page by one Atul Gawande in which he blames “the administration” for stopping lifesaving medical provider checklist efforts. Mr. Gawande states that “I work with the World Health Organization on a new effort to introduce surgical safety checklists worldwide” (which I’m sure is a noble undertaking). His credentials at the end of the piece read, “Gawande, a surgeon and a New Yorker staff writer is the author of “Better”. This article originally appeared in the NYT” (naturally). Now this sounds like another case of the mean old Republicans and GWB thwarting the efforts of health professionals to help the suffering masses, and I don’t really know what the real story is (I doubt that anyone at HC does either), but my natural skepticism of all things HC paid off when I read Mr. Gawande’s bio on Wikipedia (ain’t the Internet great?):
“As a student Gawande was a volunteer for Gary Hart's campaign, and while a Rhodes Scholar, he raised money for the African National Congress. After graduation, he joined Al Gore's 1988 presidential campaign. He worked as a health-care researcher for Congressman Jim Cooper (D-TN), who was author of a "managed competition" health care proposal for the Conservative Democratic Forum. After two years he left medical school to become Bill Clinton's health care lieutenant during the 1992 campaign and became a senior advisor in the Department of Health and Human Services after Clinton's inauguration.”
Even though he’s called “a surgeon” by HC, nowhere is he referred to, nor does he call himself, “Doctor”. His bio says that he dropped out of med school after 2 years.
There is only one reason this piece was published, and that reason was two words; “the administration”. It’s not just bias, it’s propaganda.
Analysis by Roy E. Yates, 1/04/2008