The Times Links Death Panel Concerns to Birthers, Obama-is-a-Muslim Rumors

The Times Links Death Panel Concerns to Birthers, Obama-is-a-Muslim Rumors: "Reporters Jim Rutenberg and Jackie Calmes fret about right-wing fear-mongering on death panels, linking them to 'Internet campaigns that dogged Mr. Obama last year, falsely calling him a Muslim and questioning his nationality.'"

The New York Times on Friday was at it again, dismissing concerns about a "death panel" in the House health care bill and attacking these claims as right-wing fear-mongering and just another conservative boogyman. Times writers Jim Rutenberg and Jackie Calmes linked these critiques to attacks on the Clintons in the ‘90s and derided such assertions, saying they "seemed reminiscent of the modern-day viral Internet campaigns that dogged Mr. Obama last year, falsely calling him a Muslim and questioning his nationality."

The front page article also blamed conservatives Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and the Washington Times, "an outlet decidedly opposed to Mr. Obama," for stoking fears that the health care bill would "decide which patients were worthy of living."

Rutenberg and Calmes turned to David Brock, the founder of the left-wing group Media Matters to assert that conservative attacks in 2009 are similar to those faced by the Clinton administration. The Times writers labeled Brock "a former conservative journalist who once impugned the Clintons."