I want to preface this by saying that what I am about to say actually has the effect of furthering the GOP strategy of distracting from the substance of health care reform, but I think it is important to understand.

Rep. Joe Wilson's insists that what he did was spontaneous. This is interesting. This insistence of spontaneity is suspiciously similar to the GOP leadership's insistence during August that all of the madness at the town-hall meeting was just "grassroots anger". August wasn't spontaneous and neither was Joe Wilson's outburst.

How do we know? Joe Wilson didn't say "You Lie" once. He said it twice. The second utterance occurred just moments after the first, and is the one that can be heard loud and clear because everyone else is silent. The first utterance, however, occurred while many other GOP congressmen were shouting and making other noises. If you listen closely you can hear it.

This was a stunt. It was a conscious effort either by Joe Wilson himself or by the GOP leadership to change the subject. It is classic media strategy. Everyone knows that outrageous accusations or statements will create "news", and the media (especially cable news) loves controversy. So instead of talking about the substance of the President's proposal, we are talking about this loser Congressman from South Carolina who made an ass of himself. This is what the GOP wants, and the media is happy to help because they get to dissect a controversy instead of talking about the effects of new taxes on insurance companies or whether or not insurance companies will be forced to provide 100% reimbursement for preventive care. Oh yeah, and by the way, Wilsongate gets better ratings on cable and doesn't require any policy knowledge or research to cover it.

So why point this out if it will just make the story last longer? Because the media at large needs to finally realize how their inability to escape manipulation is hurting our country. The main reason we don't already have healthcare reform is the media's inability to cut through the b.s. and spin and present the American people with the facts.