Eleven days ago, Investor’s Business Daily ran an editorial wherein they claimed that if we adopted a UK-style Healthcare system, someone like Stephen Hawking would be the victim of it. I’m relying on various journalists to get the quote, since IBD has edited the article now, albeit noting that reference to Stephen Hawking was edited out.
People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn’t have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless.
Stephen Hawking was born in Oxford, England, and to this day, lives in England. He also has had Lou Gherig’s diesease for forty years and lives to this day because of the UK Health System.
The genius who authored the editorial is anonymous, I have to just assume that they never heard of a fact-checker, or that it’s a position that is either absent or understaffed at IBD.
It’s important to check facts before you go spouting off. If you make an error, it’s important to acknowledge it and to acknowledge it correctly. Investor’s Business Daily went another way.
Editor’s Note: This version corrects the original editorial which implied that physicist Stephen Hawking, a professor at the University of Cambridge, did not live in the UK.
That’s not a correction, that’s a half-truth. A correction would have acknowledged that the original, unedited editorial postulated that Dr. Hawking would have died under the care of the U.K.’s National Health System, when in fact, he has received excellent care under it’s service.
So may I suggest that in this era of news outlet layoffs and cutbacks, let’s not slash too heavilly in the direction of the fact-checkers, shall we?
