Two days ago, on August 3rd, the White House released a video with Linda Douglass, Communications Director, Office of Health Reform. In the video, Linda says that one of her jobs is to “keep track of all the disinformation that’s out there about health insurance reform.” She then goes on to say that “there are a lot of deceiving headlines out there right now,” and proceeds to show a computer screen with the following headline: “Uncovered Video: Obama Explains How His Health care Plan Will ‘Eliminate’ Private Insurance”

Linda then goes on and on about how Obama consistently says the opposite. However, there’s just one problem for Linda and the White House, that headline delivers EXACTLY what it says, i.e. a video in which Obama explains how his health care plan will eliminate private insurance. And here it is, courtesy of NakedEmperorNews1:

Here is the video with Linda Douglass, Communications Director, Office of Health Reform:

Now yesterday, the White House came out with a blog post entitled (of all things) “Facts Are Stubborn Things” in support of Linda Douglass’s misleading video. The post first complains about the following:

Scary chain emails and videos are starting to percolate on the internet, breathlessly claiming, for example, to “uncover” the truth about the President’s health insurance reform positions.

Then the post proceeds in an Orwellian fashion to suggest that “if you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.”

Well, because of their attempt at obfuscation, the White House video and blog post themselves are “something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy”, and therefore, I suggest you report to the White House at flag@whitehouse.gov, it’s OWN blog post! The URL is http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Facts-Are-Stubborn-Things/

Here is the email that I sent:

The headline “Uncovered Video: Obama Explains How His Health Care Plan Will ‘Eliminate’ Private Insurance” that Linda Dougolass mentioned as an example of a deceiving headline, speaks of a video that ACTUALLY shows Obama explaining how his health care plan will eliminate private insurance, and is not deceiving at all. See video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-bY92mcOdk

Therefore, it is the White House blog and Linda’s video that are spreading disinformation, and hence I am submitting those here to be flagged:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Facts-Are-Stubborn-Things/

We’ll see if I get a response.