The state-controlled media has debunked itself

You can hardly find a story about health care reform in the media which voluntarily sacrificed its journalistic standards to willingly tuck itself away in the kangaroo pouch of President Obama's hip pocket without encountering a phrase to the effect that Sarah Palin's Death Panel warning was "debunked." Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post, newspaper of record for the Democrat Party, has decreed it, so in the words of Yul Brynner's Rameses II:

"So let it be written. So let it be done."

Never mind that the Senate dropped the very same provision that caused former Governor Palin to issue the Red Alert -- the liberal lapdog media seems to have no recollection of that part of the measure, much less the significance of that scrubbing:

"But citizen, that provision was never part of any legislation in the Senate of Oceania."

Penraker says, "We Are Back in the Age of 'It Depends on the What the Definition of Is, Is' And the Media Is Helping This Time":

"So here we are again, with the media conveniently ignoring those parts of the story they don’t like, and hewing to a patently political party line about what is and what is not debunked. And they wonder why no one trusts them anymore."

[...]

"The only thing that was clearly debunked was that the panels were not specifically in HR 3200. But she was on to something. There seemed to be something lurking behind this legislation. When you put all the facts together, and knowing that Barney Frank is on tape admitting that the public plan is the set up for single payer, and you see the President making clearly false claims over and over again, you smell rottenness."

[...]

"If no such panels existed in the bill, then how can [CNN's Cynthia] Yellin say it’s not an accurate assessment of what the panel is?"

1984 has arrived, albeit a quarter of a century behind schedule:

"If the Party could thrust its hand into the past and say this or that even, it never happened—that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture and death."

- George Orwell, 1984, Book 1, Chapter 3

Update (9:00 AM): At Pajamas Media, Scott Ott weighs in:

"Sarah Palin’s brilliant, succinct term 'death panels' hits home because it neatly summarizes all that’s wrong with government-run health care. Superficial efforts by reporters to 'debunk the death panel myth' will continue to fail, because Americans are smarter than most journalists when it comes to practical matters of life."

"Journalism professionals would also benefit from reading some American history, including our founding documents."

[...]

"Liberty is our natural state. Anything that encroaches on liberty, no matter how benevolent its proponents, must be resisted."

"These are 'the facts,' Mr. Kurtz. As you marvel at the mystery of how Sarah Palin has hoodwinked America, defeating politicians and pundits alike, consider the possibility that she persuades because she’s smarter than you in ways that matter most."

- JP