Yesterday the Los Angeles Times reported that “about 1,500 nurses marched on the Capitol behind black coffins and a New Orleans jazz band playing a death march. They were upset about Schwarzenegger’s emergency edict cutting back on the number of nurses required by law in hospitals and emergency rooms.”

This writer does not know what the proper ratio of nurses to patients should be. But this writer also knows a biased statement when he sees one. Is the governor of California going to fire nurses? Scary governor! Oh, wait — what is really happening is the he’s seeking a three year delay in a regulation that would decrease nurse:patient ratios from 6:1 to 5:1 in many units. Whatever the politics of the matter, a continuation of the status quo is NOT “cutting back!” How about “… they were upset by Schwarzenegger’s delay of rules increasing the number of nurses required in hospitals and emergency rooms.” Not as inflammatory — but a whole lot more accurate!

This is analogous to another well worn device, that of calling a reduction from a planned budget increase a “cut,” even if the absolute amount budgeted grows. But that’s for another time …

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 20th, 2005 at 8:56 pm by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under Los Angeles Times, Brilliant, but uncategorizable, Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.