KURTZ: Naked Emperor News is not exactly a well-known Web site, but when posted a video featuring some of Barack Obama's past comments on health care, it was trumpeted by "The Drudge Report," which, in classic faction, boosted it into the mainstream media. But the administration, rather than ignoring the thing, decided to take on Drudge. Linda Douglass, the former journalist who now works for the White House, weighed into this YouTube war with her own video.
We're going to show you part of the attack video and then the White House response.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: And my commitment is to make sure that we've got universal health care. I would hope that we set up a system that allows those who can't go through their employer to access a federal system or a state pool of some sort.
There's going to be potentially some transition process. I can envision a decade out or 15 years out or 20 years out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DOUGLASS: Hi, I'm Linda Douglass. I'm the communications director for the White House Office of Health Reform. And one of my jobs is to keep track of all the disinformation that's out there about health insurance reform. And there are a lot of very deceiving headlines out there right now such as this one. Take a look at this one.
This one says, " Uncovered Video: Obama Explains How His Health Care Plan Will Eliminate Private Insurance."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: And joining us now to talk about the White House media strategy is Linda Douglass.
Welcome.
Why did you decide to take on Matt Drudge and put up that video, which, of course, calls more attention to the original attack video?
DOUGLASS: Well, you know, one of the things we learned during the campaign was that if you give people all the facts, they become better informed. You know, there were all kinds of myths and smears that were used against then-Senator Obama during the campaign.
And what we discovered is, if we encountered them with the real facts, people really paid attention. They understand what the truth is when they seek it. And in this case, this was a bunch of clips that were taken out of context with a headline that said the president wants to eliminate private insurance. Well, that is the absolute opposite of what he's talking about doing.
KURTZ: Well, hold on. When you say taken out of context, that video featured clips of Barack Obama before he was president. The dates were given. He was talking about health care. It's his own words.
How is that illegitimate?
DOUGLASS: Well, as you know, you can take a sound bite here and a sound bite there. They took pieces of sound bites from different periods of time, they put a chyron -- that's the words on a screen -- that says "wants to eliminate private insurance" to go along with these sound bites that they cobbled together.
And our point is that he is saying exactly the opposite. The health insurance reform that we're talking about is built upon the current private insurance system. That's what it is.
(CROSSTALK)
KURTZ: Right. That is not his current plan. So, you can say well, it misrepresented or perhaps suggested that this is his position now.
DOUGLASS: His current plan...
KURTZ: But apparently he did have a different position when he was senator, and that's legitimate to throw out there.
DOUGLASS: He didn't have a different position when he was a senator. But the point is...
KURTZ: What do you mean he didn't have a different position? He talked about -- first he talked about single payers, supporting that. It was years ago. And then he talked about making a transition over 10 or 15 years to fully government insurance.
DOUGLASS: What he talked about early on was, look, if we could start over all again, maybe it would be fine to have a single payer system. But we're not going to start all over again.
There's legislation that is being written in Congress that will become the law that he signs. That is legislation that is built upon the private insurance system. If you like the coverage you have at work, you can absolutely keep it. It doesn't change except you're protected from onerous insurance regulations. So, that's the legislation that's going through Congress, and that's what he's promoting as president.
KURTZ: The woman behind this Naked Emperor Web site is Pam Kish. She's a 42-year-old California mother and a children's book illustrator who has this very anti-Obama side. She's not affiliated with any large or political group.
Doesn't she have the right to speak out?
DOUGLASS: Of course she does. And we have the right to correct the information.
You know, one of the things we're going to be doing this week is making available a Web site where people can go to get the facts about health insurance reform. There's a lot of misinformation, and there is, as I said in the video, a lot of disinformation. That's information that's meant to mislead you.
So, we're going to have a new site where people can go, they can get the facts, they can share it with family and friends. They can look at some videos. We're going to have some fact sheets and we're going to make it possible for people to get the answers to the questions that they're seeking.
KURTZ: OK. Well, I'm still skeptical on whether using someone's actual words is disinformation, but another thing that the White House did in recent days that has drawn some flak, particularly on the right, is to ask people in this effort by you to collect what you had called disinformation to send in e-mails of those who perhaps are not representing adequately the president's health care plan. That was talked about on a number of programs, including "The O'Reilly Factor."
Here is Bernie Goldberg and Bill O'Reilly talking about this effort.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BERNARD GOLDBERG, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I'm really glad you used the word "hypocrisy," because that what runs through all of this.
Yesterday, somebody in the Obama administration, Linda Douglass, who I know and I think you know, said that if you have any fishy -- her word, fishy information, misleading information about Obama's health care plan, send it to us at the White House.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: He went on to say that if the Bush administration had tried this, it would be a page one scandal story in "The New York Times."
DOUGLASS: Well, as I said before, there's a tremendous amount of misinformation, disinformation, myths, rumors that are being circulated all over the place for people who are trying to scare -- this happens every time you try to do something with the health care system. There's tons of special interests who have a vested interest in keeping things the way they are. So, there's a lot of effort to scare people, and what we've asked people do is, if they're worried about something they've heard, send in the information.
We don't have a list. We're not keeping any of the sources of information. I mean, those are all crazy charges.
KURTZ: Well, you're not keeping it, so why is it crazy? Republican Senator John Cornyn has asked the White House to stop this, and he says this could raise the specter of a data collection program.
DOUGLASS: Well, we're not -- there's no list being compiled. The information is not being retained. The sources are not being tracked.
But if there's a rumor going around, as there have been many rumors going around, we say let's take a look at the rumor and see what the truth is. And so, the information is all around and examined and looked at. And we provide the truth for people on a Web site that I think they're going to find very helpful as they try to get the truth about health insurance reform.
KURTZ: By the way, what did you make of Rush Limbaugh saying that the health care logo in the administration resembles a Nazi swastika?
DOUGLASS: I just don't even know what to say about something like that. I mean, you know, people are saying crazy things right now.
You know, here's the thing -- Americans are suffering under the rising costs of health care, they are paying 30 percent more out of pocket than they did. It's threatening their jobs, they are being denied insurance coverage by all these crazy rules.
KURTZ: And we're debating that.
DOUGLASS: And so, trying to discuss that in a civil way right now is extremely important for people's lives.
KURTZ: You were a journalist for three decades. You worked for ABC, you worked for CBS, "National Journal." You were a guest on this program many times.
Is it at all uncomfortable to be pushing an administration line on health care on people who are your former colleagues?
DOUGLASS: Absolutely -- pushing an administration line? You mean trying to promote -- trying to advocate on behalf of health insurance reform is a very gratifying thing to do. This is the country's greatest need. They have been waiting for decades for the government to act.
KURTZ: Oh, it's an important issue. But if you were still a journalist, you would be sitting in this seat, you'd be asking many of the same questions that I am. Instead, you're a saleswoman. You have to sell the president's plan, right?
DOUGLASS: Well, it's something that all of us in the administration believe in deeply. I mean, as it happens, as a journalist I covered the last effort to try to bring health insurance reform to the country. And I saw how the special interests just crushed the effort, and people now have seen their insurance premiums double over the last 10 years since there's been no...
(CROSSTALK)
KURTZ: You had a longstanding interest in this.
DOUGLASS: So, I had a longstanding interest in this. I feel very privileged to be able to work on this.
KURTZ: OK. I've got a half a minute.
Thirteen journalists by one count have now joined the Obama administration. Jill Zuckman, formerly of "The Chicago Tribune," was one of them. She was a guest on this program.
So, some people are saying, well, you were all a bunch of closet liberals just waiting for a Democratic administration so you could cross over.
DOUGLASS: Well, as you know, Howie, because we've known each other a long time, I retired from ABC News back at the end of '05, and I joined the Obama campaign last year because I wanted to be an advocate for his candidacy. And as I say, I'm privileged to be able to help with this effort in his presidency. And it's a different stage in life, it's a different career, but I'm really gratified to be able to do it.
KURTZ: And we're gratified to be able to have you.
Linda Douglass, thanks very much for stopping by this morning.
DOUGLASS: Thank you.
KURTZ: We appreciate it.
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