Topic: NewsBusters
Noel Sheppard noted in an April 14 NewsBusters post how Fox News' Bill O'Reilly challenged Sen. Tom Coburn for claiming that Fox News promoted the false claim that the health care reform bill will result in the jailing of people who refuse to obtain health insurance, something O'Reilly denied. Sheppard claimed "it's actually not that simple" and cited the example of Rep. John Shadegg making the claim on Fox. Sheppard added: "As such, Coburn was somewhat correct. But wouldn't his real battle be with Shadegg who made the claim?"
The problem: Coburn is just "somewhat correct," he's very correct. Media Matters found numerous examples of Fox News hosts or contributors falsely claiming that failure to buy health insurance will result in jail time -- including on O'Reilly's own show.
The Media Matters item was live a full 12 hours before Sheppard's post, yet Sheppard failed to reference it as a comprehensive resource to answer his question. Sadly, we're all not surprised that no one at NewsBusters has any interest in reading the competiton.
