Health Care Reform Was Journalism's Finest Effort

Looking back on the long debate over health care reform, Harold Pollack argues that one thing is clear: "Press coverage of health care reform was the most careful, most thorough, and most effective reporting of any major story, ever." Yes, it's easy to find examples to the contrary, and Pollack singles out the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal and Fox News as "predictably awful."

But if people knew where to look, they "could get more accurate information, more quickly, and more carefully-analyzed than one ever could before," he argues in the New Republic. The nation's top 5 or 10 papers shined, especially their websites, as did individual bloggers. No matter your view, "you were only a few clicks away from a remarkable and free library of analysis and supporting information of remarkable depth and diversity." (More health care reform stories.)