Bob Bytes Back Archive: 5/15/1996 Daily distortions (Columbia/HCA Healthcare Story Not In Dispatch)
5/15/1996
by Bob Fitrakis
Thomas Jefferson said “Where the press is free, all is safe.” But what happens when the only daily newspaper in a large metropolitan area is a monopoly owned by a super-rich family that sees its mission as systematically distorting the news to protect other plutocrats? You get The Daily Distortion.
A recent mega-distortion and an omission illustrate the type of reporting our own Wolfe Family Newsletter is renowned for. On Friday, the Dispatch placed a small blurb on the business page concerning Columbia/HCA Health Care Corps’ buying of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Ohio. The Cleveland Plain Dealer rightfully placed it on page one.
Columbia/HCA is a $20 billion company that in less than a decade had merged with over 347 hospitals and 125 outpatient centers and home care services. Its president and CEO, Richard Scott, has previously vowed in the pages of the Dispatch to invade Ohio and “…be across the state in every nook and cranny.” Think about it. The Daily Monopoly just buried the unprecedented merger of the country’s largest for-profit hospital corporation and Ohio’s largest non-profit medical insurer. Of course, this is the same paper that put the Rodney King verdict that led to the L.A. riots on page two and Magic Johnson’s AIDS confession in the Sports section. Read more →