Media Matters; No Truth Go Un-Spun, No Deception Too Small

I've been on Media Matters (MM) email list for a few years now and I can say that I have never read one that did not twist the truth to conform to their agenda: Propping up Democrats, liberals and progressives, while attempting to marginalize Republicans, conservatives, and lately the Tea Party movement.

This Time MM is attacking Chris Wallace of Fox News Sunday for asking Mr. Axelrod legitimate questions concerning President Obama's underhanded recess appointment of Donald Berwick to head up Medicare and Medicaid. The rant, titled "Wallace revives tired right-wing attacks on "controversial" Berwick quotes" was published July 11th, 2010.

MM says, "

Chris Wallace claimed that President Obama used a recess appointment to install Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services head Donald Berwick to avoid defending Berwick's "controversial statements" regarding health care rationing and Britain's National Health Service."

The fact that they feel the need to attack Chris Wallace reveals the truth of the matter.

To Media matters: If the real reason for this surprise recess appointment was not to avoid questioning by the US Senate, why did the President do it?

MM does not answer that question, and neither does Axelrod, the president or any of his staff. At the Whitehouse Blog, Dan Pfeiffer writes,

"In April, President Obama nominated Dr. Donald Berwick to serve as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)."

So why didn't the Democrat controlled US Senate not consider this nomination? He provides this for an answer...

" Many Republicans in Congress have made it clear in recent weeks that they were going to stall the nomination as long as they could, solely to score political points."

Is that so? Does Mr. Pfeiffer prove his statement? Nope. He's a Democrat working for Democrats to give cover to the Democrats and the president. And, as we've learned, Democrats do not need facts, they only need someone to blame. He describes the US Senate confirmation process as "Washington game-playing" that they don't have time to "waste" on.

Now it is odd that the appointment had to be made in secret as there was an Acting Administrator, Charlene Frizzera, in place since January, 2009. Barack Obama has been the President for over 18 months. If the appointment was as important as is claimed, why did he leave a "temp" in there for 18 months?

Dr. Berwick was never scheduled for a US Senate confirmation hearing. The appearance is the president's staff pulled him out of nowhere and placed in charge of rationing the federal government's largest budget area ($700+ Billion annually).

Recess appointments are generally not a really bad thing and have been used many times by most, if not all prior presidents. But this one exceptionally devious and reveals the overall mindset of this administration, where Mr. Obama creates "czar" positions expressly to avoid an open information exchange in a government that was originally founded on transparency.

Media Matters has build a fine tradition of skewing information to meet their agenda. This is just another example.