How opponents won the health care messaging war (NPR)

The Obama administration certainly hasn’t won any awards for selling the Affordable Care Act to the American people. The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism has data on just how bad of a job the administration did, but also suggests the media was partly to blame. From June 1, 2009, through March 31, 2010, 49% of the media coverage “focused on politics and strategy as well as the legislative process.” Only 23% of the coverage was on what the ACA would do. In comparing terms used by opponents of the bill, such as “government-run” and “rationing health care,” to terms used by supporters, such as “pre-existing conditions” and “more competition,” terms used by opponents “were for more present in the media reports than terms associated with arguments supporting the bill.”