When President Donald Trump's favorite right-wing television program "Fox & Friends" launched a Twitter poll on Tuesday asking whether the benefits of Medicare for All "outweigh the costs," they likely didn't expect 73 percent of the nearly 32,000 respondents to answer yes--but that's precisely what happened.
" Bernie Sanders' 'Medicare for all' bill estimated to cost $32.6 trillion, new study says. Would the benefits outweigh the costs?" the survey asked, referencing a recent Koch Brothers-funded study that found Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) universal healthcare program would save $2 trillion over ten years--a fact that "Fox & Friends" conveniently neglected to mention in both its poll and its coverage of the new analysis.
Despite the misleading framing "Fox & Friends" deployed, the results of the unscientific survey were overwhelming.
Bonnie Castillo, executive director of National Nurses United, responded to the poll results on Twitter, when just 13,000 people had voted:
The failed attempt by "Fox & Friends" to falsely document Medicare for All as unpopular--despite recent surveys showing that progressive policies like single-payer are experiencing unprecedented support, including among Republicans--fits an emerging pattern of right-wing media outlets falling face-first in their attempts to discredit commonsense, straightforward, and bold ideas.
As Common Dreams reported, right-wing Daily Caller editor Virginia Kruta attended a rally last week featuring a speech by democratic socialist congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In an appearance on Fox News, Kruta recounted the "truly terrifying" experience of hearing Ocasio-Cortez advocate policies that "everybody wants, especially if you're a parent."
"They talk about education for your kids, healthcare for your kids, the things that you want," Kruta said of democratic socialists like Ocasio-Cortez.
Responding to Kruta's remarks, journalist Sarah Jaffe asked, "Does Fox know that they're unwittingly creating commercials for socialism?"
