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News media’s near-blackout, Rep. Shuler’s snub decried

From Daily Planet Staff Reports

A protest rally opposing health-care reform as proposed by President Barack Obama drew about 250 people on late afternoon July 17 in front of Rep. Heath Shuler’s office.

Several protest leaders and participants voiced complaints about a near-media blackout of the protest. Only the Daily Planet and WLOS-TV covered the event. Protest participant Tim Peck, a libertarian, said he twittered updates of the rally to the Mountain Xpress, which posted the information on its Web site.

Later, some protesters complained to the Daily Planet about journalism ethics at the Citizen-Times, noting that Leslie Boyd, the paper’s health reporter, served as the keynote speaker at a June 27 rally for health-care reform in Pritchard Park, but did not cover the protest against “Obama-care.”

After a fiery speech by organizer Erika Franzi, a delegation from the group entered Shuler’s office to present the congressman with a petition containing signatures of local people opposing Obama’s plan. However, the group was rebuffed by a Shuler staffer, who said Shuler was in Washington, D.C., and refused to call the congressman as requested. The staffer reportedly told the delegation that Shuler “has no comment.”

Someone asked when Shuler would be back in his office, to which the aide reportedly said the delegation would be welcome to call Shuler at his Washington office.

Two sources confirmed that a disappointed delegation member then said of Shuler — in front of his aides — “He wasn’t even a good football player!” (Shuler is a former star quarterback for the University of Tennessee and later played for the Washington Redskins during a down period in the franchise’s history.)

After the delegation ermerged and word spread of the rebuff, the Planet sought to confirm that Shuler’s office declined to contact the congressman. Inside, the Planet spoke to a top aide, who adamantly refused to identify himself. The aide referred the newspaper to Doug Abrams in Shuler’s Washington office, but when the Planet tried to contact Abrams, there was no answer.

After Franzi’s speech and the rebuff in Shuler’s office, the protesters walked down the hill to Biltmore Avenue, where they lined both sides of the street, waving signs and frequently elicing enthusiastic honks and waves of support from passing drivers, many of whom work at the two adjoining hospitals — Mission and St. Joseph’s — across the street from each other.

The event started with a gathering around Franzi and long-time Republican leader Bill Lack in front of Shuler’s office. (Lack is the president of the N.C. Federation of Republican Men and volunteer leader for FreedomWorks.)

Lack introduced Franzi, a 36-year-old mother of four from Weaverville who blogs under the name of Jane Q. Republican. Lack noted that Franzi would be aiming her concerns at Shuler, of whom Lack said, “He’s our congressman, but not our representative.” The crowd cheered Lack’s assertion.

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Erika Franzi, protest leader and Weaverville mother of four, speaks out against President Obama’s proposed health-care reform in a July 17 speech in front of Rep. Heath Shuler’s office in Asheville.

At that point, Lack led a chant — in reference to Shuler — of “We want in” and “We want him out.”

He then handed the megaphone to Franzi, who said, “A lot of action has been taken on nationalized health care since we last met. As of three days ago, House Resolution 3200, ‘America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009,’ was referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

“Its proper and ironic title is ‘to provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health-care spending, and for other purposes.’”

She added, “Sounds laudable on the face of it. And let’s not kid ourselves. Our health-care system has serious problems. Millions of Americans are uninsured and are unable to afford the outrageous rising expense of routine and emergency medical care. The president and congress are absolutely correct to be seeking an answer to this problem.”

However, Franzi contended that H.R. 3200, which offered “the proposed answer to this problem,” constitutes an offer of government-funded health insurance to 47 million currently uninsured Americans at an estimated cost of $1.5 trillion to the American taxpayers.”

“As if that weren’t bad enough news, the actual problem with our health insurance industry is too much government involvement,” she said.

“Do you want Washington bureaucrats standing between American families and their doctors, or do you want the right to choose?” Many of the protest participants cheered for the right to choose.

“Will our best and brightest pursue the rigors of medical school and years of internship and residency to become a pawn of the government?” Franzi asked. “Would you?

“At a time of unprecedented national debt, the costs of H.R. 3200 will force permanent, higher taxes on all workers in return for bureaucratic delays, physician shortages and rationed, lower-quality health care.”

Franzi said that the public option equates to socialized medicine.

“A government-run, tax subsidized health-care system will push private doctors, researchers and insurance providers out of the market and force an estimated 114 million privately insured Americans into the government program.

She added, “In response to criticism that the public option will push private insurers out of business, the president said, ‘If private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality health care; if they tell us that they’re offering a good deal, then why is it that the government, which they say can’t run anything, suddenly is going to drive them out of business. It’s not logical.’

“This statement was made in willful ignorance of the fact that private insurers will be at an obvious and severe competitive disadvantage to the public plans, which will be backed by the unlimited funding of the federal treasury.”

In Franzi’s view, millions of Americans “will be pushed out of private insurance” soon if the bill is approved, “and on to the ‘public option.’ This is a very thinly veiled means to the nationalized health-care end.”

She then quoted nationally syndicated libertarian radio talk-show host Neal Boortz, who is based in Atlanta, as follows: “‘Did Obama happen to notice that Medicare completely wiped out health insurance plans for the elderly? To ignore that little face is simply not logical.’”

The public option will quickly turn into a government mandate, Franzi contended, with the government forcing all the private insurers out of business “by running perpetual deficits, just like Amtrak, the U.S. Postal Service and now General Motors and Chrysler.

“Apart from health insurance, what is the current picture of health care in America? Currently, part of our problem lies in the dwindling supply of health-care providers. Most doctors are overworked and many are underpaid. The number of doctors is increasing at only 1 percent a year.

Franzi contended that “people all over the world come to America for the finest medical care available. Americans pioneer the most medical advances in the world, by far ... More than the rest of the world combined. If socialized medicine passes, in time, this (U.S. domination) will end.”