Presidential hopeful Bobby Jindal plans to create a labor pool for Fox “News” by opening the gates of the East Louisiana State Mental Hospital. Okay, I’m exaggerating a bit. But I can’t resist the opportunity to take shots at the looney-tunes network. Indeed, former New York Times executive editor, Howell Raines, criticized the mainstream media last week for failing to adequately challenge the Fox ”News” abuses. It was a strange criticism coming from a journalist who acted as cheerleader for the NYT Times abuses that inspired and perpetuated the Whitewater investigation—a $70-million charade that caused irreparable damage to the country by helping elect George W. Bush. More substantive regarding Fox “News” is a lengthy article in this month’s Columbia Journalism Review. It will be the topic of another blog post. Meantime, back to Bobby Jindal. 

The ambitious Governor apparently will do just about anything to enhance his conservative image, including cutting back the health services of people, who are the least likely to cast ballots for him in future elections. To reduce spending in the wake of Louisiana’s budget shortfall, his Administration has been carving away programs in the Department of Health and Hospitals. DHH reductions include, Medicaid payments to doctors, reduced home health care for the disabled and large-scale of layoffs of state employees. Additionally, Earl K. Long Hospital—the primary treatment facility for the poor in Baton Rouge—is being closed and its services taken over by Lady of the Lake Hospital. The Lake is a fine facility, but it is a long way from the city’s most populated low income neighborhoods. 

Most recently, the sharpened budget knife is directed at mental health services. During a town hall hearing this month in Jackson—the home of East Louisiana State Hospital and a majority of its employees—plans were revealed to reduce patient beds at the facility by moving about one-third of its patients to a scattering of private group homes. Other states around the country, including DSS Secretary Alan Levine’s old stomping grounds of Florida, have experienced mixed results with so-called privatization. In theory, the principle is sound. But as a practical matter, privatization runs the risk of profiteering by companies contracted to operate the programs. Too often, the bottom line is more important than the quality of treatment, includes administering drugs to patients in proper doses and on  prescribed timetables. Patients frequently get lost in this system—regardless of whether they are treated by private or by public agencies. A symptom of mental problems is refusing to acknowledge and/or treat the illness.

Forty years ago, I produced a radio documentary about the sprawling, plantation-like East Louisiana State Hospital—then with a census of 2400 patients. That is six times the current number of beds. My report aired at a time when the hospital was notorious for its ancient treatment methods. I have a vivid memory of what was known as “Colony Nine,” a unit in which severely impaired patients clad in gowns or naked marched aimlessly around rooms with tile floors. They were not toilet trained. Hence, the stink was overwhelming. Every few hours, they would rotate to a second room while they other was hosed down.

At the time of my story, the catch word in mental health treatment in Louisiana and across the nation was “deinstitutionalization.” Large numbers of patients were released and told to report to publicly operated clinics to receive their medications. Many failed to comply and there was an immediate increase in the population of street people everywhere the rapid release plan was implemented. 

I’m not suggesting that mentally ill folks be kept locked-up. But cutbacks that reduce the number of beds in facilities such as East Louisiana State Hospital require carefully planned and executed alternative treatment programs. Most forms of mental illness can be controlled by proper levels of medications. And in some instances, patients fully recover as a result of pyschiatric counseling.

So as Bobby Jindal flies around the country raising campaign money from fat-cats, I hope he sets aside his national aspirations for a moment to consider the impact of budget reductions that effect people with voices that are so weak they are never heard by politicians. Otherwise, the streets of every city in Louisiana will display even more visible evidence of the failure to properly treat mentally ill patients.

Worse, Fox “News” will hire commentators crazier than the ones now on the network. Sorry. But I just can’t seem to control myself. And yes, I know there are clinics to treat my Fox obsession.

Pill-popping Rush Limbaugh has broken my heart. I was so excited when he promised to leave the country if Congress passed health care reform. But yesterday, he said he was misunderstood—that what he meant to say was that he would travel to Costa Rica for medical treatment if the bill passed. I should have expected as much. Rush and the truth are not acquainted.

Before Al Franken gave up hard-edged satire to run for the U.S. Senate, he wrote the book, Lies (And the Liars Who Tell Them). Many of the lies were attributed to Rush Limbaugh. Actually, it doesn’t take a great deal of investigative research to uncover the lies and half-truths. Listen any day of the week, take notes and do a fact check.

Al Franken is one of literature’s giant figures—mainly because he spelled my name correctly in his epic work, Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot. It wasn’t much of a plug, but he acknowledged me as one of “the people who know things.” Since I love to see my name in books, I must acknowledge Al Franken as a great author.

Too bad that he must now restrain himself due to congressional decorum. Don’t laugh. After all, U.S. Representative Eric Massa was forced to resign for merely tickling (groping?) his male roommate aides and using a little salty language that was interpreted as inappropriate. “Hey, lets you and I hop in bed together naked so we can frack.” Whatever the hell frack means.

I don’t know why people are surprised that Congressman Massa displays tendencies of being bi-sexual. We already know he is bi-party. The New York Democrat switched parties to get elected, then cast his House votes for the Republicans. In his surreal world, Massa says his vote against health care reform resulted in a conspiracy by Democrats to out him as a serial tickler. However, nobody believes that to be the case—not even Glenn Beck, who held Massa’s feet, or some other body part, to the fire earlier this week. I hope all the people who believe that I am obsessed with Glenn Beck’s lunacy will take note that I paid him this compliment. Possibly, the last one.

Indeed, the tickler was easy prey. Even Larry King caught him in contradictions. Larry’s confrontational questions are usually something along the lines, “Did you change hairstyle for your last movie?” I couldn’t bring myself to watch the entire King show, but I caught a highlight when Massa said he was unable to contact his closest aide and dearest friend—the man who complained to the House leadership—because he didn’t know the guys telephone number. Larry just shook his head in disbelief.

Anyway, Massa got his 15-minutes plus of infamy, thanks in large part to the 24-hour news cycle. Although there is no credible evidence that he was forced to resign because of his vote against health care reform, the cable news networks repeated the accusations hour after hour, often burying the responses to his allegation.

I wish there was a television show that did nothing but dispel rumors and outright lies—especially the Internet’s viral videos and e-mails. I received one yesterday containing 48 scary facts about health care reform. Since I had not heard anything about some of the assertions, even from outspoken Republican critics of the legislation, I went to factcheck.org.

The non-partisan website is underwritten by the Annenberg Center for Public Policy. The is Director of factcheck is veteran investigative reporter Brooks Jackson, a former CNN colleague in our Special Assignment Unit. Brooks came to CNN from the Wall Street Journal. He is as straight-laced in his reporting as anyone I’ve ever work with, and is not influenced by partisanship. Working with him at the Annenberg Center is a team of experienced investigative journalists. Here, in part, is a factcheck summary of its findings related to the health care allegations.  

Our inbox has been overrun with messages asking us to weigh in on a mammoth list of claims about the House health care bill. The chain e-mail purports to give “a few highlights” from the first half of the bill, but the list of 48 assertions is filled with falsehoods, exaggerations and misinterpretations. We examined each of the e-mail’s claims, finding 26 of them to be false and 18 to be misleading, only partly true or half true. Only four are accurate. A few of our “highlights”:

• The e-mail claims that page 30 of the bill says that “a government committee will decide what treatments … you get,” but that page refers to a “private-public advisory committee” that would “recommend” what minimum benefits would be included in basic, enhanced and premium insurance plans.
• The e-mail says that “non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free healthcare services” but points to a provision that prohibits discrimination in health care based on “personal characteristics.” Another provision explicity forbids “federal payment for undocumented aliens.”
• It says “[g]overnment will restrict enrollment of SPECIAL NEEDS individuals.” This provision isn’t about children with learning disabilities; instead, it pertains to restricted enrollment in “special needs” plans, a category of Medicare Advantage plans. Enrollment is already restricted. The bill extends the ability to do that.
• It claims that a section about “Community-based Home Medical Services” means “more payoffs for ACORN.” ACORN does not provide medical home services. The e-mail interprets any reference to the word “community” to be some kind of payoff for ACORN. That’s nonsense.

Go to factcheck.org for the full summary. Unfortunately, Brooks is always too polite in assessing the falsehoods spread on the Internet, in newspapers, on Fox “News,” and other forums—including CNN. To give more oomph to corrections, I suggest that Al Franken resign from the Senate and do what he does best. Expose Lies (And the Liars Who Tell Them). We need you now, Al. And you don’t even have to put my name in your books.

And now we know. Despite Rush Limbaugh’s macho posturing, he is really a closet supporter of health care reform. The truth emerged this week when Limbaugh promised to leave the country if Congress passes the health care package. His startling announcement will no doubt cause many opponents of the the bill to re-think their opposition.

I can only presume that Rush experienced an epiphany during a New Year’s  visit to the “socialist” state of Hawaii, which offers universal health care similar to the plan supported by the Obama Administration. Following his December 30th, 2009, treatment for chest pains thought to be a minor heart attack, he praised the Honolulu “socialist” hospital for the care he received.

Rush is a pretty shrewd guy. For years, he has exploited the worst fears of his audience with moronic analysis of public affairs issues, his racist comments, personal attacks on Democrats, and a lack of compassion for people at the bottom of the poverty scale. Now we know that he was simply using scare tactics to make a few bucks. It is the “ditto-heads, who are the simpletons since they believed he was a serious about his opinions.

In salesmanship, Rush’s techinique falls into the category of a negative pitch. For example, when car buyers are at the brink of a purchase but can’t quite make up their minds, a salesman may say as a last resort, “This car seems a little too expensive for you. Why don’t we look at something a bit cheaper?” At this point, pride causes a lot of people to respond, “Sure I can afford it.” To prove the point, they buy the car.

By emphasizing the negatives of health care, Limbaugh convinced listeners that they can’t afford the President’s plan. But the backlash by the GOP politicians and tea partiers was more than he bargained for. Realizing he needed to do something desperate to get the bill passed, he promised to do what many of us have hoped for years would happen. He pledged to leave the country. Costa Rica is his intended destination. It is a beautiful place with rain forests, beautiful beaches and hospitable weather. I’m certain Rush will enjoy his new home.

Unfortunately, I have bad vibes about the country. Costa Rica is the only place I ever walked off an assignment—at least during the 39 years I’ve been sober. In 1998, I traveled to Costa Rica to do a CNN story about child prostitution. I was working for the first time with a new producer in our Special Assignment Unit. She was a veteran reporter, who I wrongly assumed to be competent. I didn’t know that her skills and journalism ethics were non-existent. Nor did I realize that she knew nothing about production planning. Indeed, only one member of our crew spoke any Spanish at all, making it nearly impossible to effectively interview non-English speaking Costa Rican’s she lined-up. Even worse, a Honduran human rights advocate with pre-conceived notions about the direction of our story accompanied us. At the same time, I discovered my producer had previously been involved as an activist in the 1980’s and early nineties ”recovered memory” craze in which children were manipulated into making sexual allegations that turned out to be fantasies prodded from them by inept therapists.

None of the above caused me to depart Costa Rica in a huff, although I was sorely tempted when the producer suggested I wear a hidden camera and microphone while shopping for under-aged girls in whorehouses. I refused. The final straw for me finally occured during a stake-out of a place where police had earlier found a sixteen year-old prostitute. I did a telephone interview with the pimp who ran the house. He answered questions, claiming the girl produced a birth certificate indicating she was eighteen. However, the guy refused to do an on-camera inteview. The next next afternoon, our  producer decided to station a camera on a public sidewalk outside the gate of the house of ill-repute. An hour passed and nobody emerged. However, the cops were summoned. Hearing the producer’s explanation, they cautioned us remain on the sidewalk and left. So we continued to idiotically stand there with the camera pointed toward the doorway. I asked what this charade would accomplish. The pimp was obviously staying inside. The producer only shugged. In disgust, I said, “Adios (one of the few Spanish words I knew), stopped by the hotel to get my baggage, and headed home.

A postscript. As the result of a series of events, CNN’s then president, Rick Kaplan, named the incompetent producer to head the Special Assignment Unit. She was an old friend of Kaplan. Thus, her competence made no difference. A few days after the appointment, the network offered to give me a bonus and continue paying my salary for two years if I would consent to stay at home. I considered the proposition for all of 30 seconds before again saying, “Adios.” My Spanish was getting better.

I hope Rush Limbaugh has better memories of Costa Rica. While in exile, he will need to master Spanish in order to accomodate radio listeners—no easy accomplishment for a man his age. My suggestion is that he move to Australia.

By the way, I need to clarify yesterday’s post in which I questioned whether Wyoming was a real state, or a myth. I have never been to Wyoming, nor knew anyone personally, who claimed to be from the state. But relying on my skills as an award-winning investigative reporter, I have now determined it was admitted to the union in 1890. I guess the ancestors of Wyoming natives Dick and Liz Cheney failed to inform them of this development. Hence, they have not yet grasped the freedoms guaranteed by our country.