Nelson spokesman: PBS show 'flawed and irresponsible'

April 13, 2010 -- Today, Nebraska's Senator Ben Nelson's spokesman issued this statement in response to a "Frontline" program airing on Public Broadcasting Service stations today titled "Obama's Deal" about the year-long health reform effort that led to passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

"The program titled 'Obama's Deal' airing on PBS broadcasting stations presents a flawed and irresponsible portrayal of the Nebraska Medicaid provision in the Senate health bill," Nelson Spokesman Jake Thompson said. "No one associated with the program ever contacted Senator Nelson or his office requesting his explanation. This is an appalling disregard of the first rule of honest journalism -- to seek all sides of a story.

"Had anyone followed this basic journalistic duty, Senator Nelson would have provided documentation showing how he blew the whistle on a large unfunded federal mandate that would have socked states with a multi-billion dollar bill. He would have explained that he had asked Senate leaders for an opt-in provision for all states, so they could decide if they could afford its cost. With no Congressional Budget Office analysis available, he subsequently accepted Senate leaders' decision to insert the Nebraska provision in the Senate bill as a placeholder. He didn't ask for it, it did not win his vote, nor did he want help for only Nebraska. He always intended it as a placeholder to fight for eliminating the unfunded mandate, or providing federal funding for all states, in the final bill worked out with the House.

"The Public Broadcasting Service aired a one-sided program that buys into partisan talking points, instead of questioning those who played politics to try to kill health reform, and aired it on the same channels that carry ostensibly educational TV programming. Sure, we accept commercial networks pushing "entertainment" programming carrying slanted points of view. But PBS?"