About the only fact-check one should need regarding the since-debunked claim that rape and sexual assault will be considered pre-existing conditions under the American Health Care Act is that Ashley Judd is now promoting it.
New York Magazine tore down and rebuilt its own piece pushing the accusation, but the Free Beacon’s Alex Griswold noted Monday that CNN has posted its own piece fact-checking the claim, which was promoted last week in a piece published by … CNN.
This CNN piece debunking "rape will be a pre-existing condition" neglects to mention they were the ones pushing it pic.twitter.com/rYRqXLFnbo
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) May 8, 2017
And despite the debunking, the piece is still up https://t.co/pI3lfPCNfW
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) May 8, 2017
https://twitter.com/BecketAdams/status/861699479556292608
Of course they did. My non political sister in law flipped. Started messaging me for the truth. Thankfully @reason quashed that.
— PrettyLieb (@prettylieb) May 8, 2017
Becket Adams of the Washington Examiner explains:
At around the time Congress passed the American Health Care Act, the GOP’s response to the Democratic Party’s Affordable Care Act, its critics alleged the Republican bill would make it more difficult for victims of sexual assault to get health insurance.
“Not so,” CNN’s Chris Cillizza wrote this week in an article titled, “Donald Trump is turning liberals into conspiracy theorists.”
It’s unclear whether he meant to criticize his employer, because CNN definitely published a news report on May 4 titled, “Rape and domestic violence could be pre-existing conditions.”
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It’s actually a bit more complicated than that. In his piece, CNN’s Cillizza cites Washington Post fact-checker Michelle Ye Hee Lee, who gave the claim “Four Pinocchios.” In her fact-check, Lee cited a handful of media outlets that made matters worse by spreading the story, including Jen Christensen’s piece for CNN, “Rape and domestic violence could be pre-existing conditions,” among them.
So, will rape be a pre-existing condition under the AHCA or not? The short answer is no, but your opinion could vary depending not only on which news site you read, but which article by which writer on which day.
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Related:
WELCOME BACK! Chris Cillizza heralds arrival of ‘golden age of political reporting’ https://t.co/6KoC6tjnOa
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) April 24, 2017
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