Hollywood ‘propaganda’?

Re “Film and liberal politics,” Opinion, Jan. 28

When it comes to health, TV is among the most effective teachers. One study found that 26% of the public cited entertainment television as a top source of health information. The trouble is that TV story lines aren’t always accurate.

That’s why our health foundation has supported USC Annenberg’s Hollywood, Health and Society project since 2007, when George W. Bush was president, to help educate television writers about health issues so they can both entertain and inform through shows watched by millions of people.

Now the Hollywood, Health and Society project is turning its attention to educating TV writers about Obamacare, an effort Jonah Goldberg derides as propaganda. In fact, it is the right thing to do given the prominence of the law and the opportunity it brings for millions more Americans to have healthcare coverage.

Whether it’s through a clinic, a community health worker or a comedy show, we should do everything we can to help more people understand Obamacare and take full advantage of it.

Robert K. Ross, MD

Los Angeles The writer is president and chief executive of the California Endowment.

Goldberg never ceases to amaze, even when he arguably has a valid point, such as his view of Hollywood’s liberal bias.

He destroys his argument by using a ludicrous example, equating NBC’s “Green Week” programs that were not called out by the liberal media as propaganda with what he supposes that same media would have done had Fox News presented a schedule of “pro-life week” programs. He wonders “whether the same crowd would yawn as conspicuously.”

Really? Goldberg’s argument has little heft because his comparison would have been more valid had NBC run a “pro-choice week.”

Tom Fleishman

Valley Glen