The headline for a front page article reads: "False 'Death Panel' Rumor Has Some Familiar Roots." The article then goes on to explain first, why the death panel story is nonsense and then how a longstanding conservative network developed and promoted the "death panel" story. This is how a real newspaper should treat this nonsense. The only news here is that ostensibly serious people are saying utter nonsense. Reporters should investigate why they are repeating blatantly untrue statements. It is not objective reporting to treat the "death panel" line as a serious pole in the health care debate. It isn't.
--Dean Baker
