A Wednesday NBC News report highlighting happy Obamacare customers failed to mention that one of the “average citizens” it profiled is a Democratic political candidate and Obama campaign worker.
NBC News senior health reporter JoNel Aleccia told the story of a woman described as “Joyce Moore, a Pennsylvania financial planner” who “runs her own retirement and estate planning business.” NBC said Moore was actually happy her existing insurance was canceled due to Obamacare.
“I was expecting it to be canceled. The idea that you can keep your plan was never an option for me. That was fine with me because my plan was awful,” Moore was quoted as saying. NBC News even featured a picture of Moore with two of her sons and a caption stating Moore “saved more than $100 on her monthly premium and thousands on a yearly deductible when she switched from a private insurance plan to a plan under the new federal health exchanges.”
What NBC News Senior Health Reporter JoNel Aleccia failed to mention is that Joyce Moore is a longstanding Democratic activist who, in November 2013, ran as a Democratic candidate for Upper Milford Township Supervisor in Pennsylvania.
JoNel Allecia apparently missed Moore’s campaign website, Moore’s video announcement speech on the Lehigh County Democratic Committee Facebook page, and the Democratic candidate’s campaign Facebook page.
Allecia also apparently failed to research a January 2013 article in the Lehigh Valley newspaper The Morning Call on the Obama inaugural wherein the paper wrote the following about Moore: “Still, for Democratic activist Joyce Moore, 57, of Upper Milford Township, who worked 20-to 30-hour weeks on the Obama campaign, in addition to her full-time financial planning job, the event was affirming. Throughout the ceremony, she found herself weeping.”
Indeed, save for a brief mention that Moore was “a longtime supporter of the ACA,” NBC News includes no mention of Moore’s Democratic activism, Democratic candidacy, or work on the Obama campaign.
NBC News’s use of a Democratic operative as an Obamacare success story comes as the president’s political organization-turned-advocacy group, Organizing For Action, launched a massive publicity campaign this week to highlight happy Obamacare customers and place their stories with mainstream media. As Breitbart News reported on Wednesday, among the OFA Obamacare stories of “regular, everyday” people is another Democratic candidate and activist, Avram Friedman, who is a former North Carolina Democratic gubernatorial candidate and “highly seasoned grassroots political organizer,” according to his professional bio.
NBC News senior health reporter JoNel Aleccia has yet to issue a correction or update pointing out that the source for her story is a Democratic activist and political candidate.
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