Yesterday, my wife, Laura, and I were invited to attend a Presidential
"town hall" meeting at the Ohio State University.  The event was
sponsored by Lance Armstrong and his 'Lance Armstrong' and 'LiveStrong'
Foundations, which fund and support cancer patient/survivor support
programs.  Laura, a cancer survivor, is also a "clinical trials patient
advocate" and helps patients and their families navigate through the
process of being selected for, and participating in, cancer drug
clinical trials.  LAF was at Ohio State to help Laura and other
advocates recruit and train 1,000 new advocates from across the country.

 

Both presidential candidates were invited, but  Sen. Obama was in Europe
and obviously couldn't be in attendance.  The event was hosted by Mr.
Armstrong and former CNN News anchor Paula Zahn-who both posed questions
to Sen. McCain.  The senator spoke candidly about his struggle to quit
smoking a couple decades back and his own personal fears after being
diagnosed with melanoma (without TV makeup you can see the surgical
scars on his face).  Sen. McCain spoke passionately about the 48 states
attorneys general that successfully sued and reached settlement against
the US tobacco companies and his frustration that NONE of the funds
received by these states was used for tobacco use cessation programs,
instead going into the states' general funds.  He also expressed dismay
that tobacco legislation that he had helped introduce was defeated by
his colleagues in the House and Senate who appeared to be beholden to
tobacco companies.  He also talked about the marketing efforts that US
tobacco companies are engaged in overseas in developing countries.  Mr.
Armstrong agreed and noted that the World Health Organization (WHO)
anticipates there will be ONE BILLION deaths in China in the 21st
century related directly to tobacco use.

 

Ms. Zahn then asked the senator if he would support increasing taxes on
tobacco products as a method of curtailing tobacco use.  After some
thought, the senator said that he probably would not unless he could get
some hard assurance that those funds would be used as earmarked-for
tobacco use cessation.   Ms. Zahn then pressed the senator and asked him
if he would support increased taxation if he knew the funds would be
spent appropriately.  He indicated that he would.

 

This morning I read Marc Ambinder's account of the exchange.  He is the
associate editor of Atlantic magazine.  He wrote, "[McCain said] It
would have to be proved [that the tax revenue would be spent
appropriately]. I don't think it's in the constitution of this
Congress." He hastened to add, 'By the way, I'm not for anybody's
taxes.' He later implied that raising the cigarette tax would lead to
more smoking as a way of explaining his decision not to support a
Democratic attempt to use a tax hike to pay for more children's health
insurance. McCain said he would sign legislation establishing the FDA's
authority to regulate tobacco."

 

I was there!  McCain DID NOT say, "By the way, I'm not for anybody's
taxes."  He NEVER "implied that raising the cigarette tax would lead to
more smoking as a way of explaining his decision not to support a
Democratic attempt to use a tax hike to pay for more children's health
insurance."  The two were never juxtaposed in any of the conversations
between the three participants.  I don't know where Mr. Ambinder was
during this event (out smoking a cigarette, possibly?), but he sure
didn't hear what I heard!  I don't care if you're Republican or
Democrat, Liberal or Conservative, this sort of "agenda driven"
journalism is disgusting!  How can these folks live with themselves?
You hear both parties complain that the media treats them unfairly-by
what I heard yesterday and read this morning, they have a point.

 

I've been involved with very few events that were covered by national
media, but I've been intimately involved with several local news stories
over the years and I'm always amazed that the media coverage has never
presented the "facts" with 100% accuracy-particularly from television
news, but it's endemic across all local media.  You would think that
national news outlets would hold themselves to a higher standard of
truth, but that's apparently not the case.

 

We're reaping the fruit of what we've sown:  "Truth" is no longer
objective in the west.  "Your 'truth' may not be my 'truth'", and, "we
create our own reality" are common refrains coming out of journalism
schools these days.  That, is a sad truth.

 

Kyle


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