Jackson Free Press

Sid Salter of The Clarion-Ledger admitted in a Sept. 24 column that his paper might have screwed the pooch on "tort reform" coverage, as we detailed in our last cover story ("Hoodwinked"). But he started out whining about the "crybabies" who question his paper's coverage of the topic. "Wah-wah-wah. Oh, boo-hoo-hoo," he wrote about the critics' complaints.

Salter says the "radicals" are crying because the Ledger is so fair and balanced. (His yardstick: "both" sides found their coverage wanting.) "Their favorite refrain is that the mean old media is misrepresenting the story.' That's French for telling something other than a story that is exclusively biased toward their side's position."

Au contraire. Careful readers know the Ledger chose sides in this debate back in 2001, and has presented the positions of the insurance industry and the U.S. Chamber with crystal-clear precision. It's the side of the people (and any doctor who doesn't believe that their premiums are all about lawsuits) that hasn't gotten much play—as cited by Congress' non-partisan GAO.

After the sniveling intro, Salter seems to admit to the poor coverage, quoting (but not refuting) the GAO: "Media reports—some published by The Clarion-Ledger—of Mississippi doctors relocating, retiring or closing practices 'were not accurate or involved relatively few physicians,' the report found. The GAO report noted that in Mississippi, physicians reportedly leaving the state represented 1 percent of all physicians licensed in Mississippi."

Salter then beat a quick retreat from that admission back to more comfortable territory, lifting a few sentences from an e-mail that attorney Merrida Coxwell send the Clarion-Ledger about the JFP's cover story. Salter's answer to Coxwell? "Sob. Sniffle. Boo-hoo." Seriously. Salter, who probably more than anyone else has framed this issue into a lawyers-vs.-doctors brawl, then used the same "Manufactured Crisis" subhead we used in our cover story, added a question mark, and lightly skated through the GAO's points, muddling the findings (that stipulated the premiums are too high) along the way and saying that there hasn't been enough time for the malpractice premiums to start their dramatic descent. (Go talk to California.)

He ended by swiping at the Mississippi Medical Association for criticizing The Ledger's editorial that appeared the day after our article, actually agreeing with us (again, not by name) that the Legislature should now investigate the insurance industry. Granted, the letter belittled the GAO's findings, but MMA must have felt sucker-punched by such a good friend.

Suddenly, to hear Salter tell it, the doctors are crybabies now, too. I have an idea: let's all just ignore him from now on. Isn't that the way the French deal with temper tantrums?

Previous Commentsshow

It seems like our tort-reform story comes just before a wave of bad news for the "lawsuit abuse lobby." Here's some links to very compelling pieces by, er, "radicals" and "crybabies" like the General Accounting Office of Congress, columnist Bill Minor, Washington Monthly magazine and Insurance Reform magazine that add some more context to this story. And be sure to look at our original "Hoodwinked" story if you haven't seen it, yet: http://jacksonfreepress.com/cover_comments.php?id=1639_0_9_0_C GAO Testimony, Oct. 1, 2003, "Medical Malpractice: Multiple Factors Have Contributed to Premium Increases" http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04128t.pdf Bill Minor's column today: "Where's all this "jackpot justice" that propagandists have been pounding into the heads of our citizens? It's certainly not in Mississippi." http://www.sunherald.com/mld/thesunherald/news/editorial/6911359.htm Washington Monthly: "How the GOP milks a bogus doctors' insurance crisis" http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/0310.mencimer.html Finally, here's one from Insurance Journal: "$The U.S. property/casualty industry's net income after taxes rose to $14.5 billion in first-half 2003 from $4.4 billion in first-half 2002, as both underwriting and investment results improved, according to Insurance Services Office Inc. (ISO) and the National Association of Independent Insurers (NAII). Reflecting the industry's income and unrealized capital gains on investments, its surplus, or statutory net worth, increased 9.9 percent to $312.5 billion at June 30 from $284.3 billion at year-end 2002." http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/newswire/national/2003/09/30/32692.htm

ladd

Oct 2 2003