Wingnutosphere made up health care survey

I'm a fair-minded man, but when wingnuts lie, I call them out.

Lately, the solons of wingnutopia have been talking about a survey that was supposedly conducted and published by the respected New England Journal of Medicine. According to this fabled survey, as many as 46% of doctors would quit the medical profession if health care reform passes.

Fox News repeated this survey ad infinitum.

But now it turns out that this survey was completely made up out of thin air.

Media Matters for America got suspicious about this poll and contacted the New England Journal of Medicine to ask whether they had published it. The New England Journal of Medicine says it never conducted, published, or had any role in such a survey. In other words, it was totally made up by the wingnut brain trust.

The closest thing to it was an unscientific e-mail survey conducted by an advertiser newsletter for doctor recruiting firms, but even this self-promotional poll did not suggest that 46% of doctors would quit because of health care reform. In fact, the survey was answered only by those who felt like answering.

Fox News touted a similar survey last year, but it turned out to have come from the far-right Investor's Business Daily.

Honestly, do you seriously think so many doctors - who spent all that time in medical school - are going to just up and quit over health care reform?

The FCC used to take a dim view of TV stations intentionally distorting news, but with the Fox News command state ruling the roost these days, that policy seems to have gone by the wayside.

(Source: http://mediamatters.org/blog/201003170036)