Media Myths on Health Care, A Quest to Find “The Forest,” and Alia Malek

The public option: is it dead? Is it alive? Who’s going to kill it this week? These are the headlines nearly every day, but the rest of the story is rarely told.  Joe Lieberman may have replaced Olympia Snowe in the news, but the story remains the same; left vs. right, government vs. private industry. Never mind checking facts, or looking at actual public opinion on the public option.

Is the media complicit in the failings of health care reform? Allison Kilkenny of Citizen Radio, Adam Green of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Diane Archer of the Campaign for America’s Future, and Bob Fertik, President of Democrats.com join us to discuss the coverage, good and bad, and what it means for the fate of the public option.

Alia Malek, author of the new book A Country Called Amreeka: Arab Roots, American Stories, grew up in the U.S. the child of Syrian immigrant parents.  She noticed that Arab-Americans were either seen as incredibly foreign or invisible, and set out to tell the stories of generations of people who challenge the popular stereotype of Arabs in this country. “We keep seeing Arabs as only foreign but I wanted to place in the consciousness the idea of the Arab American,” she says.

Our Got Docs selection this week takes us from Sweden to Costa Rica in search of a swath of rainforest. Not just any rainforest, though–filmmaker Jacob Andrén bought a few acres of rainforest as a primary school child. The Forest is the story of Jacob’s journey to track down his patch of rainforest and to figure out, along the way, whether one person’s small contribution can make a difference.

Kate Clinton shares her thoughts on Bloomberg’s attempted third term, Hillary Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State, and why Democrats should make Republicans read the phone book, and Phyllis Bennis wants to remind politicians that far from being political suicide to criticize Israel, it might be political suicide not to.

Thanks to Media Matters for America and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee for video in today’s show.