ABC, you're going to be broadcasting an Obama town hall on health care on Wednesday. I'm immensely pleased you're doing that. But if we've learned anything from the past election cycle, it's that we can't necessarily trust the media to be non-partial and fair arbiters of national conversations.

Diane Sawyer is living up that that infamous reputation, according to Media Matters and the Huffington Post:

A media watchdog group, Media Matters, has released an analysis of the first installment of the ABC series — a Good Morning America segment headed by Diane Sawyer — including critiques of the actual questions asked. In particular, the group draws parallels between the areas of Sawyer's interests and how the Republican strategist Frank Luntz framed his strategy to derail health care reform.

For example, Sawyer began the segment by questioning Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius about "the public fear of a towering $1-to-2 trillion cost. Can Americans afford it?" From there, she pressed he president's top domestic policy adviser, Melody Barnes, about the issue of "rationed care" before playing a video of Newt Gingrich warning about "government bureacrat[s]" telling the public what type of coverage it can and cannot receive.

Echoing Frank Luntz? Really?

We've been through this before. Frank Luntz's talking points are not substantive critiques of health care, and should not be taken as such. They are poll-tested messages designed to kill reform, and they consist of a bunch of strawmen (rationing, Washington takeovers, etc…). None of these things will come to pass if President Obama gets his way on health reform, so why is the media asking the administration about them?

ABC, you can do better. I'm hoping for a well-moderated town hall that sticks to the issues at hand, not the issues that invade Republican dreams at night. Please, the American people deserve no less.