Incorrect Promise (euphemism for “lie”)
President Barack Obama frequently told the American public, “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.” However, when the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was initiated in 2013, many people lost the ability to see their previous doctors and many also saw their health insurance plans cancelled.
The New York (NY) Times, in the article “Obama in Bind Trying to Keep Health Law Vow” on November 12, 2013, stated:
“The split between lawmakers and the White House reflects the dilemma the president finds himself in as he seeks to follow through on last week’s acknowledgment about his incorrect promise on health care coverage.”
The term “incorrect promise” was instantly ridiculed as a bad euphemism for “lie.”
New York (NY) Times
Obama in Bind Trying to Keep Health Law Vow
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR and ROBERT PEAR
Published: November 12, 2013
WASHINGTON — Under intense bipartisan pressure to answer mounting consumer complaints about the botched health care rollout, White House officials are struggling to make good on President Obama’s promise that Americans can keep their insurance coverage without undermining the new health law or adding unaffordable costs.
(...)
The split between lawmakers and the White House reflects the dilemma the president finds himself in as he seeks to follow through on last week’s acknowledgment about his incorrect promise on health care coverage. Hundreds of thousands of people have received cancellation notices from health insurance companies because their plans do not conform with minimum standards set by the new law.
Twitter
Todd Feinburg
@toddtalk
The NY Times calls it an “incorrect promise.” Which the less erudite refer to as a lie. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/13/us/bill-clinton-urges-obama-to-yield-on-health-law.html?_r=0 … #obamacare #aca #fail #war
8:46 PM - 12 Nov 13
Red Alert Politics
NY Times calls Obama’s ‘keep your insurance’ lie an ‘incorrect promise’
By Melissa Quinn /// November 13, 2013
The New York Times The New York Times is taking it easy on President Barack Obama once again, this time saying Obama made an “incorrect promise” when saying Americans could keep their health plans.
The newspaper evolved from saying the President “misspoke” when he said Americans could keep their current plans under the Affordable Care Act to writing Obama made an “incorrect promise.” Appearing in an article Tuesday in the Times’ national section — as opposed to the editorial pages — reporters Michael Shear and Robert Pear once again fail to recognize Obama’s broken promise for what it is: a lie.
Politico
On Language: ‘Incorrect promise’
By DYLAN BYERS | 11/13/13 12:24 PM EST
Last week, The New York Times was roundly criticized for writing that President Obama “misspoke” when he promised Americans that, if they liked their health insurance, they could keep it. (Margaret Sullivan, the paper’s public editor, suggested “was clearly wrong” as a more appropriate choice.)
This week, the controversial phrase is “incorrect promise.”
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What is an “incorrect promise”? Does such a phrase even make sense?
The phrase has previously appeared only three times in the news media over the past 25 years, according to the Nexis database
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That the phrase is so rarely used is likely because it doesn’t make sense from a linguistic point of view. A promise is a declaration anticipating a future outcome for which an agent is responsible. To call a declaration “incorrect” is to suggest that the declaration was wrong in a vacuum, detached from the agent responsible for bringing it into existence.
New York (NY) Times—Public Editor’s Journal
November 13, 2013, 12:12 pm
Roundup: Staff Departures, an ‘Incorrect Promise’ and More
By MARGARET SULLIVAN
(...)
3. The President’s ‘Incorrect Promise’ Last week, I questioned an editorial that used the words “clearly misspoke” to describe President Obama’s statements about whether Americans could keep their current health care providers under the new law. On Wednesday, a similar instance arises in a news article, and some readers are criticizing the words “incorrect promise” in the following passage:
“The split between lawmakers and the White House reflects the dilemma the president finds himself in as he seeks to follow through on last week’s acknowledgment about his incorrect promise on health care coverage. Hundreds of thousands of people have received cancellation notices from health insurance companies because their plans do not conform with minimum standards set by the new law.”
It is an awkward phrase and, as Dylan Byers at Politico wrote, linguistically dubious. What, exactly, is an incorrect promise, anyway? Something more direct like “false promise” would have been both clearer and more accurate.
Twitter
Tom T.
@VRWCTexan
#CarnacTheMagnificent:
“Rhetorical Error ~Incorrect Promise ~“Misspoke”
#Name Three terms MSM uses for Obama Lied!
pic.twitter.com/RT8M5in7hj
4:20 PM - 26 Nov 13
Twitter
DEFCON
@gb_ball
According to Obummer a LIE now is considered an incorrect promise #ObamaDontCare #FPC
5:03 PM - 26 Nov 13
Twitter
KRenner
@KRenner2
Dear @nytimes, Still wondering what an “incorrect promise” is.
8:43 PM - 26 Nov 13
Conservative Intelligence Briefing
Your employer insurance won’t be affected? Another Obamacare ‘incorrect promise’
Written by David Freddoso. Posted in 2014 Campaigns, Issue Watch
Published on November 26, 2013
Hate to say I told you so, the President has “incorrectly promised” once again — and once again, his administration knew all along that the promise was false.