Greetings from hot, muggy, overcast Brooklyn... please pardon
your guest blogger’s blog outage of the past two days. Service resumes just in
time to wrap up the week with a couple of items…
When Stacey shared with me a few guidelines for posting on this
site, she mentioned that BAP bloggers generally avoid overtly political
commentary, but she also said—I’m paraphrasing here—that readers might find it interesting to hear a bit about how AJN covers health care
topics that have become politicized.
As anyone who wasn’t already in a coma this summer knows about
our most recent coma-inducing national conversation, the timing couldn’t be
better for discussing the discussion. I wrote about it, here, last week, where I noted:
At
AJN we usually avoid taking sides in partisan political fights. We focus
on issues that are important to nurses and their patients, and when we publish
articles that concern health care policymaking, we try to present the facts as
objectively as possible. When there’s a legitimate debate about the best
approach to achieving a particular goal, we try to present all sides with equal
objectivity, in the belief that readers can make up their own minds when
presented with unbiased information.
Unfortunately, people who
should and probably do know better are not upholding similar standards of
objectivity and reason in the current debate. National political and media
figures are willfully undermining sensible discussion of desperately needed
reform efforts, misinforming the public and stirring up baseless fears for
their own political advantage and financial gain. It therefore becomes
increasingly difficult to cover health care policymaking without taking some
note of the political forces that are distorting the very terms of the debate.
(Well, I suppose that’s all very sound; much more fun, of
course, would be to have Jon Stewart’s job, and do this, not to mention this.)
Those who are sick of hearing about health care reform may
benefit most from reading these posts by AJN
senior editor Jacob Molyneux at AJNoffthecharts.
In any case, I hope you’ll read my post, and the Times article that traces the origins of the heinous phrase
“death panel,” and names those responsible for inserting it into the debate.
Credit where credit is due: let it be noted
that on “Cease to Thrill,” the Vdisc song I posted on
Wednesday, the music was written by Lin Esser, Ted Mockrish, Stephanie St.
John, and Vdisc; the lyrics were written by Ted Mockrish. The track was
produced by Lin Esser. The musicians were Paul Bennett, bass; Lin Esser, guitars,
guitar synth, violin; Ted Mockrish, drums; Stephanie St. John, voice; and your
guest blogger, keyboards.
That’s all for now. It’s been a real pleasure to be here this
past week. Thanks, again, for reading and listening.
