The Washington Health Exchange: We call back the reporters that say good things about us, not the ones with hard questions.

That’s exactly what the Communications Director did to at least one local reporter in their attempt to continue hiding the truth.

The disastrous national rollout of ObamaCare has been a Page 1 topic since October 1, as the media hurried to catch up with a story that reporters had missed (as one national publication pointed out in depth yesterday — Dropped Coverage).

Email showing Michael Marchand ignoring Austin Jenkins

Here in Washington State, our state government effort has been praised in the media, both locally and nationally, as one of the few ObamaCare success stories.

Well, as SHIFT pointed out yesterday, perhaps that’s because of really good spin and a bit of misdirection (link to yesterday’s piece).

And today, our investigation turned up even more from our public records requests.

Turns out that the Communications Director for the Washington Health Benefit Exchange wasn’t that interested in, let’s say, “communicating” on the day the state exchange launched back in October – at least not with a reporter whose story he deemed “sadly slanted.”

And just who was this misguided reporter, according to the Communications Director, someone from FOX News, or maybe the Drudge Report?

No, it was public radio’s Austin Jenkins, who also hosts TVW’s highly-respected “Inside Olympia” – one of the last public affairs shows in our state that actually interviews government leaders at length.

I guess when public radio starts to ask “tough” questions, like “How many people were able to fully sign up on line today – if any?” it can make our taxpayer-funded Communications Director become a tad cranky – and quiet.

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