A Challenge

It's still doom and gloom here.

Talking Points Memo reports that Sarah Palin has managed to discover the secret intent of the current health insurance legislation:

The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's "death panel" so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their "level of productivity in society," whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

Which made this challenge from Publius seem appropriate:

Can the American media, as an institution, inform the public about what's really being proposed? And can it do so in the face of sustained, outright falsehoods (not good faith policy disagreements).

Publius quotes the Steven Pearlstein column quoted below, and optimistically opines, "Well, this column by Steven Pearlstein sure is a good start."

Alas, it will probably be the end of it, too. I'll give 5 to 1 that the answer to Publius's question is "No."