Star headline on GOP health care job loss claim watered down

by David Safier

On the one hand, I'm pleased to see the Star ran a front page article questioning the Republicans' claim that the Health Care law will cost jobs.

On the other hand . . .

The Star headline is

Health law effect on jobs is unclear

Unclear? Well, yes, no one has a crystal ball. But most papers, as well as McClatchy News, which wrote the article, have a variation of the following headline which makes it clear the Republican claim about job losses is dubious at best:

Experts doubt GOP claim that health care law's a 'job killer'

I appreciate the Star's sensitivity, deciding not to go with the word "killer." In fact, throughout the article, the Star chose to substitute phrases like "eliminate jobs" and "job losses" whenever "job killer" was used. Would that Republicans were equally sensitive (And I wonder if the Star's sensitivity is misplaced, since the term "job killer" in quotes is simply a repetition of the Republicans' callous terminology). But I know the paper's Creative Headline Writing Team is more than up to the task of writing strong headlines, and the wishy washy head they came up with simply doesn't carry the necessary freight. It deals with the job loss issue as if it's academic, rather than a point the Republicans have insisted on, erroneously.

If you read the story in the paper edition, you may have seen the short sidebar. Completely misleading, though it's not worth going into in any detail. It's just another example of the Star doing backflips to hold up the Republican end of the health care debate.

Oh, and by the way, for once, the AP article on the topic is actually harder hitting than the McClatchy piece. So the Star went with McClatchy, natch.