The Obama administration has clearly signaled that it is willing to treat the media as an adversary and respond in kind. Just ask Fox News Channel. Now it’s taking on an ad from the health insurance lobby.
The White House used its blog to attack the AHIP report, then took it from there, saying, “Now, in a sign of desperation facing the fact that reform might actually give some power back to Americans and their doctors in making health care decisions, AHIP has gone a step further and embraced the same discredited deceptive tactics that opponents of reform have been using in attempts to scare our seniors.”
It then quoted the script of a “new ad you might catch on TV from the health insurance lobby,” and took it apart bit by bit. The pattern is to take a quote and then counter it.
In this case, most of the ad concerned changes to Medicare under health reform, with the White House doing its best to dispel the claim.
RBR-TVBR observation: The internet has provided amazing capabilities for individuals and institutions. Obama made excellent use of it to get elected, and it’s no surprise that his administration is blazing new trails there while in office.
But most senior citizens are not going to go online and read the White House blog. In this case, to have equal impact to the advertising from the insurance lobby, the administration is going to need its own reciprocal advertising.
