Mudslinging in Washington state. “The key to the doctors’ strategy is obvious: prey on the unpopularity of trial lawyers.
They put up a campaign Web site called ‘theirlipsaremoving.com’ “” the punch line to the joke ‘How can you tell when a lawyer is lying?’
Their TV ads are filled with demeaning images of lawyers: giving each other high fives while throwing darts at a picture of a doctor and stuffing fat wads of cash in their pockets (presumably their take from another medical-malpractice ‘jackpot’).
One ad features a split-screen image “” on one side a doctor gives a child a checkup; on the other a lawyer wags a big cigar. ‘When your health matters,’ the announcer asks, ‘do you believe your doctor or [in a sneering voice] lawyers?’
When Seattle pollster Stuart Elway asked almost that very question in a statewide survey earlier this year, 66 percent sided with doctors, compared to 6 percent for trial lawyers.
As Frank Luntz, a Washington, D.C.-based Republican pollster, once noted, ‘It’s almost impossible to go too far when it comes to demonizing lawyers.’”
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“66 percent sided with doctors, compared to 6 percent for trial lawyers”
The public isn’t stupid. They know who the slimeballs are.
If Washington state gets tort reform, they will get an influx of physicians (including me). Seattle is a great city. Right now it’s just too painful to work there, due to the sharks.