How absurd is it when the L.A. Times has to run an article that treats “Does the (healthcare reform) legislation include provisions to encourage senior citizens to commit suicide?” as a question that needs to be taken seriously and answered with a straight face:

No. This has become one of the most misleading, inflammatory claims made in the healthcare debate, advanced repeatedly by conservative commentators such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and Republican lawmakers working to stoke fears among seniors.

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) recently suggested that the Democratic healthcare bill would “put seniors in a position of being put to death by their government.” There is no such provision.

The House bill would give seniors on Medicare the choice to sit down with a doctor for an “advance care planning consultation” every five years to discuss options should they become seriously ill or unable to make medical decisions. Topics could include the development of a living will and directives for care.

“These are important discussions everyone should have so they are fully informed and can make their wishes known,” Dr. J. James Rohack, president of the American Medical Assn., said in a statement. “That’s not controversial. It’s plain old-fashioned patient-centered care.”

The provision is endorsed by the AARP.

Or there was Judy Woodruff on PBS, forced to do the exact same thing in the exact same deadpan tone:

For a closer look at what health care reform might mean for senior citizens, we turn to Gail Wilensky, a former director of the federal agency overseeing Medicare and a former adviser to the first President Bush. She’s a senior fellow at Project HOPE, a foundation for international health education.

And Joe Baker, president of the Medicare Rights Center, a national nonprofit advocacy group. He is a former New York state deputy secretary for health and human services.

Before we talk about this broadly, I want to deal with this charge that’s out there. Gail Wilensky, to you first, this so-called euthanasia charge, that there’s something in this proposal that will have somebody from the government go visit people and say, “You must decide right now how you’re going to die.” What’s the truth of that?

Both Gail Wilensky and Joe Baker rose to the occasion, solemnly debunking the tripe with a straight face.

Of course, this needs to be done. But at the same time, it’s not really going to have any effect, is it? Those who are so far gone as to believe this pathetic garbage in the first place a) probably do not read the L.A. Times or watch PBS, and b) would never believe either source anyway over the likes of Limbaugh and Hannity and Virginia Foxx.

So the only real effect of such debunking is that we can take some solace in the fact that at least some in the media are actually trying to inform the public about the facts of the matter.