Facts Are Hard

Harold Pollack meets the world of major newspaper op-eds:

Dick Morris and Eileen McGann wrote a self-satirical op-ed in the New York Post slamming the Obama health plan. These authors went on for several hundred words about how wrong it would be to offer undocumented immigrants the same health benefits now offered to the United States Congress when this would require rationing care to elderly Americans.

I noted one problem with their argument: The Obama plan does not cover undocumented immigrants—a fact that was debated at some length during the Democratic primaries. I noted that one could uncover this fact, by entering the words “undocumented immigrants Obama health plan” into a website called www.google.com.

Of course if being accurate were a requirement for op-ed pieces, then more than one national newspaper columnist might be out of a job. So given the current economic downturn, I think it's important to keep letting people make stuff up.