Former President Obama addresses misinformation, concerns about democracy at University of Chicago event
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Former President Barack Obama was back in Chicago Wednesday – speaking at an event at the University of Chicago, where he once served as a lecturer at the Law School.
In a discussion with Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, Mr. Obama talked about misinformation, media partisanship, and other subjects.
For one example, Mr. Obama addressed how he himself was accused of lying in comments during the runup to the passage of the Affordable Care Act in which he said, "If you want to keep your doctor, you can." He said the point was that amongst people who had health care, one big problem was that they had been misled by scare tactics that left them vulnerable to thinking they would be subject to government-rationed medicine – and he was trying to assure people, broadly speaking, that their situation would not change.
But after the Affordable Care Act passed, there ended up being some ultra-cheap insurance plans on the marketplace that did not provide any benefits when people actually got sick, and when people were up for renewal on those plans, the standard was they were not able to renew. Thus, they did not get to keep their doctors like Mr. Obama said they would.
Mr. Obama said the result was that both partisan commentators and mainstream reporters said: "Look! He lied! You lost your insurance that you had and you were perfectly satisfied with it!"
Mr. Obama said his point in his speeches before its passage had been that the Affordable Care Act would not systematically force people off their employer-based health care and completely take control as some had been led to believe – not that everyone would keep their insurance or doctor under any and every circumstance without exception. Still, he said his words were used as "gotcha" moment.
The former president also spoke about the changes in how people get their news in small rural towns such as those in downstate Illinois where he once campaigned – with not just cable news, but also digital community newsletters replacing newspapers as a major source. As a result, Mr. Obama said he might have a harder time connecting to people in such areas if he were campaigning today.
He warned that "the loss of local journalism, the nationalization of sort of a grievance-, anger-based journalism, the growth of social media and technology whose product design monetizes anger, resentment, conflict, division" can leave people vulnerable and even lead to violence.
Mr. Obama earlier addressed the War in Ukraine, and what it represents in terms of democracy around the world.
"It is calling the question about a set of trends around the world that we've seen building for some time," Mr. Obama said. "Putin represented a very particular reaction to the ideals of democracy."
The event Wednesday, hosted by the U of C's Institute of Politics, was titled "Disinformation and the Erosion of Democracy.
