Media Getting it Right

In the 20+ years I’ve been working with long-term care insurance (LTCi), I’ve been waiting patiently for the media to stop slamming LTCi so that the public could be better informed. Could it be that the media is finally getting it straight about how essential LTCi is?  When I see accurate, factual articles with no trace of foul, negative spin,  I am heartened!

Thank you to Constance Gustke of www.CNBC.com for taking the time research and honor her profession as a journalist. Here’s her article, titled, “Long-Term Care Comes of Age”.  There is no emotional spin in this article because it is written by a good journalist. It contains a lot of solid, useful facts and  information. I encourage all of my readers to read Ms. Gustke’s piece and forward it to those you care about, who still avoid conversing about responsible long-term care planning.

What Ms. Gustke is doing correctly, and what an embarrassing number of her peers don’t, is relate information factually, with no tinge of emotion.

The contrast between Ms. Gustke’s example of good journalism and junk, shoddy journalism is very obvious when you compare this piece to the one I commented on by Katy Read in the Star Tribune, April 13, 2011.  Click here for my blog about this piece.

Ms. Read has her facts correct, but why was she compelled to frame LTCi negatively? The first paragraph of this piece states LTCi is expensive. She mentions LTCi’s expensiveness an additional time in her short piece. Why? To sell press? Short deadline? I have no idea. I do know that this is very harmful to the readers Ms. Read seeks to inform. The negative spin of this article is possibly just the excuse her readers need to continue their procrastination of responsible long-term care planning.

It’s also incorrect information. The truth is that LTCi is an absolute bargain when you factor in how probable it is that any of us will need care, along with the often catastrophic costs of care. Ms. Read alludes to this, but I think most readers will miss this information due to being more absorbed by her negative spin.