Reuters Now An Obama Attack Dog?

Yesterday there was much ado about a story claiming that Wellpoint, a health insurance company which includes the Blue Cross/Blue Shield brand in 15 states, was dropping the coverage of women who were diagnosed with breast cancer.

Wellpoint released a press release citing the inaccuracies in the Reuters report.

So what does Reuters do? What any good news agencies would do, and that is correct the story.

Sorta. When browsing the Reuters web site I found this description of the updated story.

* Corrected: WellPoint routinely targets breast cancer patients
* ... all references to Robin Beaton in first paragraph and throughout to reflect that the insurance company that canceled her policy was not a WellPoint subsidiary). ...
* Thursday, 22 Apr 2010 02:05pm EDT

The funny thing is however when I click on the link to see the correction there is no mention of what was done to correct the story and instead they simply removed the information with no further explanation.

Today our wonderful HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is continuing her assault against Wellpoint. Remember Alinsky's Rule for Radical. Identify an enemy, isolate and attack. It seems in this whole debate over health care Wellpoint has been the designated whipping boy. Partly because last year when the debate over the nationalized health care was heating up Wellpoint had the audacity to provide the administration with exactly what they wanted. The congress and the administration asked Wellpoint to crunch the numbers and project what the cost of insurance premiums would be under the current legislation. Well congress didn't like the numbers but Wellpoint CEO Angela Braly stood firm. We all know how liberals view strong women who oppose them and so Angela and her corporation have now become Public Enemy #1 in the eyes of this administration.

The Reuters story is falling apart but one has to wonder what would have started them on the path to doing an investigative piece against Wellpoint. The basis of the story is relevant and one that I think should be looked into. All I am asking is that when you do your reporting do it factually and leave your pre-conceived notions at home. Also before you single out a business for abuse you just might want to make sure you have the right company.

For healthcare the enemy is Wellpoint and for the financial reform it is Goldman Sachs. One has to wonder who is in the crosshairs for the Cap and Trade imperative and who can they make an enemy out of on immigration. The pattern is pretty clear though. Attack the heavy hitters in a certain sector of the business world. Class warfare at it's best and the private sector had better start getting some skin in the game or it is going to be game over for the private sector.

H/T to Politico for the HHS letter