Weekend Watchdog Wrap-Up

In both SCHIP debates held on ABC's This Week and CBS' Face The Nation, hosts passively allowed Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt and Rep. Adam Putnam to spread misinformation without correcting the record.

On ABC, Leavitt repeated the $83,000 lie: "The president just thinks it's wrong, that some under this bill could receive public subsidy for their health insurance as high as $83,000 in their family."

Stephanopoulos did not correct him and inform the audience that the bill Bush vetoed "would discourage states from expanding SCHIP to families making three times the federal poverty level or more — $61,950 for a family of four."

On CBS, Putnam repeated the lie, unchallenged, that the bill would "forc[e] two million children out of private insurance ... into a government-run program," when in fact wouldn't force anything, only provide kids the option of enrolling in a SCHIP-financing state program if they are uninsured or underinsured.

And despite all of the conservative attacks charging the bill makes SCHIP "Washington-run," no one was asked why they supported Bush's imposition of Washington restrictions on states trying to cover more kids.

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