It is evident that in recent months loudly vocalized right-wing propaganda has greatly influenced the health care reform debate in the United States.

The perspectives and policies adopted by the right, manifested chiefly in the legislative bloc of the Republican Party, have been facilitated by very visible and permeating campaigns conducted by conservative commentators like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity, and cemented by Republican party leaders like Sarah Palin and John Boehner.

Many of these conservative personalities are utilizing rhetoric with the derived intent of aggravating a confused base of voters. This rhetoric, fueled by often baseless lies and disproportionate emphasis on dissenting viewpoints in the policy debate, has misdirected a large percentage of voters in their understanding of proposed health care bills.

A strong example is the over-representation of anti-health care perspectives via contributor commentary on Fox News, a right-leaning news outlet, which is clearly outlined in the graph below. Note: This data was taken during two days in which nationwide town hall meetings on the health care topic were reaching sometimes violent and often incoherent piques:

(Graph courtesy of Think Progress)

The featured conservative personalities often tend towards over-generalizing and promoting the same (usually formally dismissed) accusations. This has been in large part due to Dr. Frank Lutz, a senior Republican consultant, and his talking points memos on the "correct" Republican response to health care reform. His “script” of suggestive language and tactics that should be adopted by Republican speakers underlines the partisan dividedness on the health care issue.

Follow up:

Here’s another way to look at the misinformation: In our poll, 72% of self-identified FOX News viewers believe the health-care plan will give coverage to illegal immigrants, 79% of them say it will lead to a government takeover, 69% think that it will use taxpayer dollars to pay for abortions, and 75% believe that it will allow the government to make decisions about when to stop providing care for the elderly. But it would be incorrect to suggest that this is ONLY coming from conservative viewers who tune in to FOX. In fact, 41% of CNN/MSNBC viewers believe the misinformation about illegal immigrants, 39% believe the government takeover stuff, 40% believe the abortion misperception, and 30% believe the stuff about pulling the plug on grandma. What’s more, a good chunk of folks who get their news from broadcast TV (NBC, ABC, CBS) believe these things, too. This is about credible messengers using the media to get some of this misinformation out there, not as much about the filter itself. These numbers should worry Democratic operatives, as well as the news media that have been covering this story.

The somewhat comical, albeit unfortunate, effect on the misinformed public has been surfacing in Youtube videos following the recent “9/12 protests”, which were largely organized by Glenn Beck, a conservative commentator on Fox News.

This turn towards widely propagated misinformation comes at a time of unprecedented corporate influence. The mode in which conservative politicians and more recently, Supreme Court Justices, are addressing this is creating spillover effects in every sector of American public policy. Of course, any direct influence by corporations who stand to gain is hard to see, especially in their dealings with any public office holder. Disconcerting moves can be seen more clearly however in other places, particularly in the corporate ability to put pressure on mainstream media outlets, often constricting the exposure of opposing viewpoints to that of the interests of the institution exerting influence.

Of course, with all of the recent focus on right-wing rhetoric, and the attention paid to it in this blog, it is important to understand that conservatives aren’t the only ones that utilize these tactics to advance their goals. Recently, liberal advocacy groups have spread misinformation, an example being in the Joe Wilson controversy. Right wing propaganda in health care reform is more closely being monitored and addressed because of its frequency of incidents, loudness of its proponents, persistence on behalf of the interest groups and individuals spreading the misinformation and because of how all of that is culminating and in effect derailing actual policy debate.

That said, it is also critical to point out that moderate conservatism has sought to distance itself from the rhetoric and frenzy sponsored by its more radical counterparts. For instance, Joe Scarborough, who was a Republican congressman in the 1990’s has started his “GOP Honor Roll”. Conservative biographer Sam Tanenhaus, in a recent interview with NewsWeek, expressed dissent from more vocal and radical conservatives, advancing the notion that the partisan toned rhetoric and ineffectual leadership are resulting in a decline of conservatism.

It’s also important to note that several news outlets have done their best to illustrate the misunderstanding that has fostered among the American public. For example, Time magazine recently published an article that critically examined Glenn Beck’s role in current political debate and NewsWeek has continually and directly brought up and thoroughly dismissed the plethora of health care lies in several published articles.

Of course, with all of the forces at work on both sides, and the propaganda that is rampantly tearing across the political spectrum, it is easy to miss the point, which is that the US is in dire need of health care reform. Currently, millions of Americans are out of health care, and the costs of providing health care to those who can currently afford it is rising at unprecedented rates. There are legitimate reasons to oppose elements of any bill, and there are ways to bring legitimacy to arguments surrounding conflicting opinions in policy development. However, it is critically important to the well being of our republic that all opposition be presented in true-to-fact and civil fashions to facilitate the democratic process and address issues as they arise.