Here is a statement from Ethan Rome, executive director of Health Care for America Now (HCAN), on the Media Matters report:

“At a time when right-wing extremists were trying to make the case that the health care reform bill was a government takeover plot, Fox News incorporated politically charged language into its day-to-day reporting to mislead its audience intothinking the public option was something that it wasn’t. The public option would have competed with private insurance companies to help lower costs and give consumers more choices.

“The commonly used term was ‘public option’ for a reason – it was precise and descriptive of a policy that would have given consumers another choice of coverage.

“But Fox News’s policy is to drive a political agenda and systematically influence its audience’s views. Fox News wanted to smear health care reform by choosing a poll-tested phrase crafted by a Republican communications consultant so itsallegedly objective news reporters could describe health care reform as something that it is not.”

HCAN today alerted its supporters to fight back and spread the truth about Fox News’s relentless shilling for the interests of the Republican Party’s most important friends – billionaires and big corporations.

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Health Care for America Now is a national grassroots coalition of more than 1,000 organizations in 46 states representing 30 million people. HCAN led the fight over the past two years to win passage of health reform and to keep Congress from being steamrolled by corporate special interests.