Tom Coburn wants his constituents to get a more fair and balanced view of politics — even if that means hating a bit on FOX and loving a little on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.btw, i don't mean i agree with him on unemployment insurance.
“What we have to have is make sure we have a debate in this country so that you can see what’s going on and make a determination yourself,” the Oklahoma senator said in remarks to a home-state town hall meeting March 31 that were first reported by Capitol News Connection. “So don’t catch yourself being biased by FOX News that somebody is no good. The people in Washington are good. They just don’t know what they don’t know.”
In particular, Coburn took FOX to task for perpetuating the notion that Americans will be imprisoned for failing to purchase health insurance under the new law.
Coburn spokesman John Hart said the Oklahoman wants constituents to gather information from multiple sources rather than relying on just one news outlet.
“He makes those comments privately frequently about media networks. I think his point was to encourage citizens to be skeptical consumers. He was not trying to pick on Fox,” Hart said.
And, noting the widely held perception that FOX leans right, Hart said “It’s more credible to critique your own side.”
Coburn’s defense of Pelosi — he called her “a nice lady” — elicted a little bit of disapproval from his constituents, according to Capitol News Connection.
While the two lawmakers share little ground on policy, Hart says his boss’s philosophy holds that “you separate the ideas from the individuals.”
But Coburn took exception to Pelosi’s view that Congress shouldn’t set a precedent by requiring budget offsets to pay for a temporary extension of unemployment insurance.
“I want to set that precedent,” said Coburn, who has been holding up a bill that would extend jobless benefits.
FOX News did not reply to a request for comment.
8 hours ago
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