Friday, June 29, 2012

Spot the Bias

Firehouse.com is a nice little magazine/web site, mainly for firefighters and it advocates for firefighters.  Bu this article makes me wonder if Firehouse has a liberal bias in their articles when it comes to politcs.
From Firehouse: Federal benefits for volunteer and non-profit EMS personnel who die in the line of duty took another step forward Wednesday when the the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the measure.
For several years, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has pushed for legislation to grant the families of volunteers and non-profit agencies the same PSOB funds that firefighters, police officers and career EMS providers receive.
Leahy has led the charge for the change after one of his constituents, Dale Long, was killed in an ambulance crash in June 2009.
"We have been working to address this gap in the federal program for some time, and the loss of Dale Long reminded everyone that first responders of many uniforms literally put their lives at risk every day," Leahy said in a prepared statement. "These brave emergency professionals never let their communities down when a call comes in, and no one asks the lifesavers at an emergency scene whether they work for the federal government, a state government, a local government, or a nonprofit agency. This provision will erase that unnecessary distinction from the PSOB program."
Congress created the PSOB program more than three decades ago to provide tangible help to the surviving families of police, firefighters and medics who lose their lives or are disabled in the line of duty.


NAEMT has pushed for the PSOB change for many years, and personnel lobbied once again at its annual EMS on the Hill day in May.  http://www.firehouse.com/news/10735950/house-oks-psob-for-volunteer-medics-emts
First off, Firehouse doesn't name the author, which is strange.
But now, Firehouse has a love fest with Sen. Patrick Leahy, which is fine except the article is about the U.S. House passing the PSOB in which Leahy is not a member.
Then, the U.S. House is run by the GOP majority, not the Democrats, so the GOP had a little something to do with passing this bill, something the Senate has not done.
When the Bill passed the House, it was by voice vote and the voice vote was overwhelming...
So far, Leahy has been trying since 2009 to get the bill introduced into the Senate.  Why hasn't that happened since the Democrats have controlled the Senate for 6 years?  This bill has not been introduced into the Senate by Leahy, or anybody else.  Why?
There 18 co-sponsors of the bill, 9 GOP and 9 Dem, so it was clearly bi-partisan.
So, bias can come from CNN, MSNBC or any of the major media outlets to little outlets like Firehouse Magazine.
But now, with the Internet, the media can be called out on their bias by little blogs like this.

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