McClatchy's Les Blumenthal reports on the latest line of attack against health care reform coming from right-wing media:
State of the health care debate: Talk radio attacks an 11-year old
WASHINGTON — Conservative talk show hosts and columnists have ridiculed an 11-year-old Washington state boy's account of his mother's death as a "sob story" exploited by the White House and congressional Democrats like a "kiddie shield" to defend their health care legislation.
Marcelas Owens, whose mother got sick, lost her job, lost her health insurance and died, said Thursday he's taking the attacks from Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Michelle Malkin in stride.
"My mother always taught me they can have their own opinion but that doesn't mean they are right," Owens, who lives in Seattle, said in an interview.
Malkin said Owens was a "lobbyist" who was "goaded by a left-wing activist grandmother." Beck characterized the young boy as a tool of George Soros. And Limbaugh claimed Owens had been "forced to tell his story all over just to benefit the Democrat Party and Barack Obama," adding:
I would say this to Marcelas Owens: 'Well, your mom would still have died, because Obamacare doesn't kick in until 2014.'
That's pretty nasty stuff...and to target it at an eleven-year-old child? These guys -- Limbaugh, Beck, and Malkin -- truly do take the 'c' and the 'l' out of "class." They really are running on empty.