What is wrong with American media and political culture: an example brought to you by Good Morning America.

A few weeks ago, while indirectly watching Good Morning America* over a bowl of cereal, they ran a preview segment for a 20/20 John Stossel segment on universal preschool, which has apparently been proposed by the Obama administration. Now, I cannot say that I watched the full 20/20 program; but apparently from reviews from those who did, what I saw from the “preview” pretty much covered the content of the whole program. Stossel lined up a bunch of angry, tax paying mothers and had them sound off on the waste of money universal preschool would be. After all, they argued, there are already subsidy programs for those who cannot afford preschool. All this will be is a big waste of money.

There was, not surprisenly, no interviews — at least in this preview, but for how long it was it could have at least included balance if it existed in the longer format — of Obama officials who are responsible for advocating the idea of universal preschool, or interviews of federal employees who administer such benefits as already exist and might be able to explain why the current system is inadequate. Rather we just had livid mothers, complaining about how silly and stupid Obama and such politicians must be; it’s plain common sense to anyone that such a system is a pointless waste of hard earned tax payer’s money.

Now this alone justifies the title of this post. But what made this really golden was the segment that followed immediately after it, a fluff piece with Diane Sawyer in Finland. ** Mostly Sawyer just talked about how much those Fins love saunas and, how cute their traditional dances are; but there was also a lengthy segment on their health care system. Apparently, I learned, all major towns in Finland have a health clinic which, for $50 a year, they can have full access to. And apparently, the Fins have gotten a lot healthier in the past decade or so, due to many public initiatives and awareness campaigns. Impressive, the report seemed to say. And yet, no mention of how this is made possible. Sounds nice, why don’t we do that here? Oh gee, do you think it might have something to do with the fact that, according to this source at least, as of 1999 private sources accounted for only 24% of Finland’s health care system? Hmmmm. Maybe? That might? Have something? To do with it?

Or honestly, maybe not. To be honest, I’m not sure how Finland’s statistics square up with comparable countries, or ours, on how exactly they cover their health care costs.*** And perhaps they will end up revamping it to make it more private.**** But the larger point is that, when covering one of those suspect European countries that are branded negatively in the minds of most Americans as “socialist,” no one even thinks to ask where these charming qualities come from. What, do they just figure the simple and endearing Fins are more thrifty with their primitive medical supplies than Americans? That ought to be the first question on any serious reporter’s list — how do they pay for this, and why can’t we do this here? — but instead, the glaring question is not even asked.

Coming after a typical John Stossel piece, where the government is portrayed by ranting taxpayers as inherently incapable of understanding any simple issue in the simple manner that simple common sense obviously dictates, this very simple (read, thoughtless) piece on Finland came across as even more starkly disturbing. Often the idelogical threat of socialism in Europe is dealt with by demonization; but perhaps ignoring the fact that such altnerative options even exist, or subtely insinuating that they only work in supposedly simple and bucollic countries, is a more effective way to prevent the American pubic from even questioning their by-your-own-boostraps ideology.

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• I am never sure if I am supposed to italicize TV shows, but then decide to in any case because really, doesn’t it just look weird if I don’t? And I dislike quotes as a substitute.
• * And if you’re looking for the health care coverage on the website link, tell me if you find it; cause I couldn’t. Apparently it wasn’t quite newsworthy enough to make the cut, and they replaced it with Sawyer’s chilly dip instead.
• ** And quite honestly, I am too lazy and too busy to embark on that kind of research at the moment, especially considering that 1) no one reads this and 2) it’s not the main point of my argument in any case.
• *** I say this because, judging from my brief Google search, Finland might be revamping its health care system some time soon.