Posted by Gary Schwitzer in Health care journalism
Another terribly incomplete story on a morning segment on network TV.
It was about an osteoporosis drug now being looked at for poorly healing bone fractures.
CBS put a crawl under this story reading “Stem cells to build better bones.” And then failed to mention stem cells even one time in the story.
They also had:
* No discussion of costs – which are significant.* No discussion of evidence, which is limited.
* No discussion of the source of the information, but we can assume it was a recent study for which there was no control group to compare the results to. Furthermore, that study has not yet been published and the full results have not been reviewed by other experts. These are important caveats that the story should have mentioned.
Instead of data, the segment gushed calling it “godsend…really exciting…very important…could be lifesaving.”
At least on the Chicago Tribune’s website, this story appeared in the Health section – not the local business or feature section. It didn’t address most of the things we think are crucial in a health story.
“Brown fat” has ignited a grease fire of media hype in recent weeks.This WebMD story missed a good opportunity to smother the flames.
We reviewed this story and a competing AP story on these new fibroid studies. Read and compare.
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