Posted by Gary Schwitzer in Uncategorized
They fell like dominoes. The New York Post broke the story with the headline, “Suicidal ‘killer’ gets liver transplant.”
MSNBC.com followed with “”Many outraged as accused murderer gets liver transplant.”
CBS News had, “Suspected Killer Gets Organ Transplant, Jumped to Top of Waiting List.”
Fox followed with, “Confessed Killer Gets New Liver Ahead of Others.”
Too good to be true on a slow news day. But hold on. As Reuters reports, the hospital where the transplant reportedly took place denies it.
Reports of jumping transplant waiting lists are concerning. What did these news organizations do to verify their stories?
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Overall, this was an easy-to-follow summary. But there was a clear difference between this and a competing Boston Globe story, which did a better job offering context and analysis.
This Boston Globe blog post gave its audience a more thorough understanding of an emerging approach to virtual colonoscopy than the Wall Street Journal.
Longer, but overall not any better, than the coverage from the competing LA Times story. Not thorough enough to explain what this preliminary research actually means for readers–which is not much at this point.
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Lisa Carroccio posted on July 28, 2010 at 6:17 am
I do hope legal action is brought against the NY Post and those who slander the good name of one of the finest liver transplant hospitals in the country.
I am the mother of a 17-year-old daughter who received both a liver transplant as an infant and more recently, a kidney transplant. Myself and those in the transplant community have worked long and hard to promote organ donation–to see this kind of irresponsible reporting is heartbreaking.
I’ve watched many children die, because an organ donor wasn’t found in time. Irresponsible reporting such as The Post’s only adds to the organ shortage. Shame on them and the others who jumped on the bandwagon.
Although the NY Post has since printed a retraction, they did so in a way that leave further suspicion of Columbia. Apparently, the Post got their informaiton from two NYPD officers (both of you were misinformed).
Lisa Carroccio