Demented Lede by the Chicago Sun-Times

So if you were writing about a program that tried to steer non-emergency cases away from overcrowded Emergency Wards and towards Community Health Centers, would you start your story this way?

U. of C. Shunning Poor Patients?

Sen. Barack Obama's wife and three close advisers have been involved with a program at the University of Chicago Medical Center that steers patients who don't have private insurance -- primarily poor, black people -- to other health care facilities.

You'd then think that an article with that kind of opening would actually have evidence -- one way or the other -- that U. of C. was "dumping" patients on other hospitals because they're poor and black. You'd think they'd actually have a person, whether for attribution or not, who was involved with the hospitals in question, or even with health care in general, who could substantiate to any degree the stated premise of the article.

We're not asking for much here. Unfortunately, the answer is no.

Instead what we get is an offhand remark from Ald. Toni Preckwinkle that concludes:

"Whether it's being implemented in the way that's in the best interest of the patient, I can't tell you."

And that's it! The whole rest of the article is devoted to a discussion of perfectly legit connections between members of the Obama clan and the U.of C. Hospital, which being U. of C. ought to surprise no one.

This is total schlock journalism. It follows a standard recipe consisting of: 'Big Institution, Obama Connection, Fake Bad Thing -- shake for 10 minutes and serve.'

UPDATE: You know, the article displays such a studied ignorance of how health care is (mis-)administered in the U.S. The "journalists" who put it together must think poor and black people like hanging out at ERs for their primary care.