Jump to full article: Raw Story, 2009-09-20
Author: Daniel Tencer
Intro: The person credited with inventing the "death panels" claim about health care reform worked with tobacco giant Phillip Morris to railroad health care reform in the Clinton administration, Rolling Stone magazine reports.
In an article in the magazine's October 1 issue, not yet available online, writer Tim Dickinson reveals that Phillip Morris "worked off-the-record with … writer Betsy McCaughey as part of the input to the three-part expose in The New Republic on what the Clinton plan means," Rolling Stone reports.
McCaughey, a conservative columnist and former deputy governor of New York, penned a 1994 article in The New Republic that was credited with helping to kill the Clinton-era health reforms. As RS noted, the magazine later retracted the story. And The Atlantic magazine ran a story in 1995, entitled "A Triumph of Misinformation," debunking McCaughey's arguments at TNR.
Now McCaughey appears to be playing a pivotal role in efforts to shut down this year's health reform efforts.
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