No, Senator Edwards is not lost in a time-warp, this is my invention. But suppose that he did present his plan to address the Soviet threat? Would the reporters dutifully write it down and pass it along to readers to evaluate for themselves? Perhaps, but more likely they would write that Edwards is incredibly ill-informed, since he does not seem to realize that the Soviet Union collapsed more than 15 years ago. This is relevant because the NYT did not think it was appropriate to make such a correction in reporting on a speech in which Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani laid out his plans for reforming the U.S. health care system. According to the article, Mr.Giuliani warned against the health care reform proposals of the leading Democratic presidential candidates: "you have got to see the trap. Otherwise we are in for a disaster. We are in for Canadian health care, French health care, British health care.” It would have been helpful to readers to point out that by a wide variety of outcome measures, including life expectancy and infant mortality rates, these countries' health care systems do as well or better than the United States. Mr. Giuliani is either ignorant of the performance of these health care systems or trying to mislead his audience.
--Dean Baker
