The NewsHour, and the Perils of (Even the Most Fleeting) Fame

-- Posted by Neil H. Buchanan

In this past Tuesday's post, I promised to provide a link to the story on the PBS NewsHour in which I was interviewed. The 7 minute, 8 second video is now available here. My 24 seconds of fame begin at the 4:43 mark. One hour of interviewing, boiled down to one quote. That's show biz!

Interestingly, within a few minutes of the segment's airing on PBS this past Thursday, I received an angry email. In the segment, I had said that Republican governors who tried to justify refusing the Medicaid expansion by pointing to their states' current budget crunches were scare-mongering, because the current (Great Recession-induced) budget crunches should not be used to justify refusing to expand Medicaid years in the future, when states will have had a chance to recover from their current, temporary crises.

The email that I received had the Subject line "Neil Buchanan's threats against uninsured," and read as follows: "Your threats against uninsured Americans, which you expressed on PBS television (Channel 26), aired on Thursday July 5, 2012, were abhorrent, repugnant and disgusting."

Uhhh ... thanks for watching?