KOA Morning News' Tubbs let GOP pundit use "socialized medicine" label for Clinton health plan

Summary: Colorado's Morning News host Steffan Tubbs of Newsradio 850 KOA on February 6 failed to challenge his guest, Republican strategist Jennifer Millerwise Dyke, when she claimed that Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton "wants socialized medicine." In fact, according to independent media analyses, Dyke's statement about Clinton's health care plan is "inaccurate" because "the government would not control the system," and because of the involvement of private insurance companies.

On the February 6 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA's Colorado's Morning News, host Steffan Tubbs uncritically allowed his guest, Republican strategist Jennifer Millerwise Dyke, to assert that Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY) "wants socialized medicine." As Media Matters for America has noted, media analyses have stated that characterizing Clinton's "Health Choices Plan" as "socialized medicine" is "inaccurate" because of the involvement of private insurance companies, "which could turn a profit from the plan."

Tubbs interviewed Dyke following the February 5 "Super Tuesday" primary elections and caucuses.

From the February 6 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA's Colorado's Morning News:

TUBBS: Jennifer, I don't know if you heard in our newscast, but conservative talk show host Ann Coulter saying that John McCain is more liberal than Hillary Clinton. Even if you didn't hear that from her mouth, what do you take from that? Is John McCain not a true Republican conservative, and is he a liberal?

DYKE: I don't think Ann has much credibility on a lot of issues, and I'd probably add this to the list. I mean, Hillary Clinton is a big liberal, and John McCain is not. If you look at the American Conservative Union -- does a voting, you know, that does a career vote among senators, among congressmen -- I think John McCain's lifetime rating is almost 90 percent. You know, there are some issues where he has strayed from the flock, which is obviously one of the reasons that he's been appealing to independents, because he does have the reputation of being a bit of a maverick. But when it comes to the issue that I think most Republicans really care about, that's national security, I mean, this is someone who's proven to be right from the very beginning. He obviously is a strong and proven leader. You look at his record on issues like the economy and trying to cut back on wasteful spending. He certainly has been someone who has very strong credentials there. You look at Hillary Clinton, who wants socialized medicine, who's talking about everything that she can do, how she can help the people -- not how the people could be empowered to help them, but how the government can help the people -- I mean, you're going to have a very, very clear choice between two people who have very different ideological views on the key issues if you come down to a McCain-Hillary campaign.

Dyke's claim that Clinton "wants socialized medicine" echoes mischaracterizations that former Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani made in September and December 2007, as Media Matters has noted. In evaluating Giuliani's September 17, 2007, statement that "[w]hat [Clinton] will do is socialized medicine," PolitiFact, a project of Congressional Quarterly and the St. Petersburg Times, found that Giuliani's statement was "inaccurate" because "the government would not control the system and because of the heavy involvement of private insurance companies":

According to Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary, socialized medicine is "a system of medical care regulated and controlled by the government, in which the government assumes responsibility for providing for the health needs and hospital care of the entire population, at no direct cost or at a nominal fee to the individual, by means of subsidies obtained by taxation."

It's inaccurate to call Clinton's proposal "socialized medicine." It doesn't meet that definition because the government would not control the system and because of the heavy involvement of private insurance companies -- which could turn a profit from the plan. [emphasis added]

Similarly, following mischaracterizations of Clinton's plan that Republican candidates made during an October 21, 2007, primary debate, The Washington Post's Fact Checker blog noted that "the Clinton plan does not force Americans to accept 'government insurance.' It offers people a choice. If they are happy with their present health plan, they can keep it. Otherwise, they can switch to the plans offered to members of Congress, or a government-run plan similar to Medicare."

—E.B. & J.F.B.