Is the White House trying to silence certain health insurance companies?
” Fox News host Bill Hemmer asked, “Is the White House trying to silence certain health insurance companies with the threat of legal action?” His guest, Mike Tuffin of America’s Health Insurance Plans, stated that “a gag order [has been] issued from Washington,” adding that “the timing of this and the tenor of it — it has a chilling effect on free speech.” Hemmer read a statement from Humana but did not provide the rationale given by CMS for its actions. [America’s Newsroom, 9/22/09] NewsBusters’ Baker: Obama abusing power “to suppress free speech.” In a September 23 blog post, NewsBusters senior fellow Brent Baker characterized the Obama administration’s move as “using the full power of a federal regulatory agency to suppress free speech — specifically, to silence Humana’s predictions about the impact of proposed ObamaCare cuts to the Medicare Advantage program.” Baker further asked, “[W]ill the media champion free speech and be outraged by the abuse of power to suppress it, or will
