Doctor/”reporter” sells cream on QVC

Unbelievable.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that a KDKA-TV medical “reporter,” who is a physician, was “peddling Joint Formula 88 joint pain relief cream ($21.90) on QVC.” Worse, if it can get worse, is that the cream is his product.

Did anyone talk to this guy about journalism ethics before hiring him?

I just spoke to a group of California journalists about the entanglement of conflicts of interest in the dissemination of health news and information. My recurrent message to them is what I would tell this “M.D.-reporter” — YOU HAVE TO DECIDE WHETHER YOU’RE GOING TO BE A JOURNALIST OR A PR-ADVERTISING PERSON. You can’t do both.

Add this egregious example to the long list of commercialism and conflict of interest incidents in journalism which I previously reported.

Comments are closed.