Primetime Live tonight announced they had a new segment tonight called Doubletalk. "For when politicians say one thing and do another." First subject: Sen. Rick Santorum.
The reporter mentions that the issue is medical liability reform, and the piece shows Santorum speaking to a group of doctors, talking about how there needs to be medical liability reform. Specifically, a $250,000 cap on non-medical damages.
Whoops! Santorum's wife sued for pain and suffering due to a botched chiropractor's session. For $500,000.
Sadly, Santorum's turned down interview requests. So instead, they go to a book signing.
Santorum is clearly annoyed at the cameras. He claims he's "not wedded to 250k" as the cap. The piece cuts away, shows him proposing 250k twice. Second, he says that there were a lot of other damages (piece cutaway to courtroom, 18k in medical bills graphic vs. a total jury award of $350,000). He also says that while he supports his wife, he may not agree with every decision she makes (gee, Ricky, doesn't that go against your book's philosophy on a woman's role), which the reporter shoots down by saying "you testified on her behalf."
Santorum grows more irritated as the piece goes on, finally snapping "I think I've answered why that's not true" when they ask him again if this isn't doubletalk.
It ends with them saying something like "Doubletalk? We'll let you decide." Seemed like a jab at Fox.
The one thing lacking in the piece is that it failed to mention why the cap is actually a bad idea. Under that plan, if a doctor screws up an easy operation and leaves a person paralyzed, that individual would be entitled to $250k. Also, the piece notes that the jury award got cut down by the judge as ridiculous, but fails to point out that this shows again that such reform isn't needed. Judges slice jury awards that don't make sense---like Mrs. Santorum's.
Still, a great piece. There's also a print version, althout it was much better on TV.
http://abcnews.go.com/...