From Fabius Maximus

Perfidy: The act of violating faith or allegiance; violation of a promise or vow, or of trust reposed.

ABC News proudly announces what seems likely to be a betrayal of their public trust as journalists, joining the Obama Administration to produce propaganda supporting their proposal for health care reform. If that proves to be true, at least they are open about this – so Americans seeking real news can look elsewhere.

1. ABC news refuses to air paid ads during its White House health care presentation, the Drudge Report has learned, including a paid-for alternative viewpoint. (Source: Drudge Report)
2. Letter to ABC News from the Ken McKay (Chief of Staff to the Republican National Committee) protests this “glorified infomercial to promote the Democrat agenda”, esp the refusal of ABC News to include any presentation by Republican Party leaders.
3. Response by Kerry Smith (SVP, ABC News) to the RNC letter — “no one watching, listening to, or reading ABC News will lack for an understanding of all sides of these important questions.”
4. An excellent analysis of this by Zenpundit: Well at Least We Know ABC is Immune to Intellectual Embarassment.

This is not about the health care crisis. It’s about people — including in this case, the executives of ABC News — willingness to throw away a key component of our system in order to push a government policy initiative. No matter how valuable that initiative, IMO this does not justify corruption of our already poorly functioning social mechanism for informing the American people about the world.

As usual, Fabius has a hell of a post......