One of my day jobs - as publisher of HealthNewsReview.org - has been rewarding and the work has also been awarded - again.

The site has been named a finalist in the first-ever Mirror Awards honoring excellence in media industry reporting. There are 22 other finalists, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, National Public Radio, The New Yorker, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal and others.

A study in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention reports widespread confusion in America about cancer and cancer prevention.

Nearly half of respondents (47.1%) agreed that "It seems like almost everything causes cancer," 27.0% agreed that "There's not much people can do to lower their chances of getting cancer," and 71.5% agreed that "There are so many recommendations about preventing cancer, it's hard to know which ones to follow."

I'm a journalist so I always look in the mirror first and I blame journalists for creating much of this confusion. The "cure" or "killer" emphasis in many stories - in order to compete for space or airtime - shows no appreciation for public understanding. Fulltime health, medical and science reporting jobs are being slashed all over the country.

Just look at how some top news organizations recently handled cancer screening stories.

And then we have health insurance marketing people shoveling "consumer driven health care plans" at us. This study is further evidence of how far away many Americans are from understanding how to be in the driver's seat of their own health care - admirable though that goal may be.

The Poynter Institute website has published my overview of some journalists' apparent pro-screening bias in coverage of some screening tests. The incidents I've tracked involve screening for cancer (prostate, breast, lung, colon) but also for cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

The piece documents more than a dozen incidents of pro-screening stories and gets perspectives from some health journalists about why this is happening.

Documentary producer Michael Moore's new film, "Sicko," will be in theaters this summer, he promises. But it's already getting lots of publicity, some of which he's drumming up around a Treasury Department investigation of Moore. It involves Moore's team taking some sick Sept. 11 rescue workers to Cuba for one segment in the film.

Moore's letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is on Moore's website. In it, he writes:

"The health care and insurance industry, which is exposed in the movie and has expressed concerns about the impact of the movie on their industries, is a major corporate underwriter of President George W. Bush and the Republican Party, having contributed over $13 million to the Bush presidential campaign in 2004 and more than $180 million to Republican candidates over the last two campaign cycles. It is well documented that the industry is very concerned about the impact of SiCKO. They have threatened their employees if they talk to me. They have set up special internal crises lines should I show up at their headquarters. Employees have been warned about the consequences of participating in SiCKO. Despite this, some employees, at great risk to themselves, have gone on camera to tell the American people the truth about the health care industry. I can understand why that industry's main recipient of its contributions -- President Bush -- would want to harass, intimidate and potentially prevent this film from having its widest possible audience."

An Associated Press story has many more details on the reason for the Treasury Department investigation.

The London Daily Mail reports on a man diagnosed with cancer who was told he had less than a year to live.

"The 62-year-old council worker quit his job, sold his car, stopped paying his mortgage and dug into his life savings so he could treat himself and relatives to expensive restaurant meals.

He even sold all his clothes but for the black suit in which he expected to be buried.

A year later, however, with no sign of the Grim Reaper coming to call, he went for tests - which gave him a clean bill of health. He had never had cancer at all."

I've written before on this blog about journalists who seem to have a pro-screening test bias, never mentioning the harms that can occur from some tests. While this story was about a diagnostic test, not a screening test, it nonetheless should serve as a reminder that there are harms of false positives - which occur often in mass screening campaigns which some journalists endorse in the absence of the best evidence.

Wish I had a nickel for every story about vagus nerve stimulation that trumpeted it as a treatment for depression.

This week, Medicare rejected Cyberonics’ implantable nerve stimulator, saying the device, the VNS Therapy System, hasn't been shown to be necessary. The $25,000 device is already approved for epilepsy. Cyberonics wanted to expand its use.

Bloomberg News reports “The Food and Drug Administration approved the device in 2005 to treat depression, overruling 20 agency advisers who urged rejection.��?

On the Cyberonics website the company boasted of dozens of news stories from across the country over the past two years, with headlines such as:

"Implant can relieve depression: VNS Therapy is proving beneficial."

"Omahan says she's proof device zaps depression."

"Emerging from the depths of depression."

"The Pacemaker for the Brain" is Saving Lives."

"Up from hopelessness."

"Implanted device helps fight drug-resistant depression - Giving new hope"

Among the media reporting the potential for the device:

U.S. News & World Report
Saturday Evening Post
Redbook
Reuters Health
Arizona Daily Star
San Antonio Express News
El Paso Times
Corpus Christi Caller Times
Toledo Blade
Omaha World Herald
Chicago Tribune
KSAT, San Antonio
WMUR Manchester, NH
WCCO, Minneapolis
KETV, Omaha
KUTV, Salt Lake City
KSL, Salt Lake City,
WBZ, Boston
WCBV Boston
WISN, Milwaukee
WKYC, Cleveland
KTBS, Shreveport
KOMO, Seattle

Each one of those news organizations owes it to their audience to play up the Medicare rejection of the device as prominently as they promoted the potential in the giddy glory days.

Former Philadelphia Inquirer executive editor Gene Roberts, whose paper won 17 Pulitzers in his 18 years in that job, was asked in an interview, “Are there any beats you would suggest the mainstream press is missing today?�

Roberts: “One of those is the medical crisis in the country. People write about it, but I don't see the kind of sustained week-in, week-out coverage that the situation calls for.

You read now and then about the crisis in the emergency rooms and how many Americans are uninsured, but it isn't really set up as a beat, so you have different reporters switching in and out of a story and you don't get the expertise and the continuing coverage that would have if more reporters covered it as a beat. …

The FDA, the Food and Drug Administration, is another one not well reported by newspapers. The whole question about how rapidly and safely drugs get out to the public is another thing that is going uncovered.�

Roberts is now a journalism prof at the University of Maryland. He won a Pulitzer of his own last month for his book, “The Race Beat.�

For a look at how two different news organizations covered the news of a potentially more accurate test for prostate cancer, see the HealthNewsReview.org review of a weaker ABC News story in contrast with the review of a stronger Baltimore Sun story.

However, neither story adequately addressed the fact that while a more accurate test may tell who has prostate cancer better, it still does not tell which men need treatment in their lifetime and which men don't, which is the real problem in prostate cancer screening. So, both stories left readers and viewers with an overly optimistic view of what screening can do.