We often write about bad news releases and weak science overpromoted by academic medical centers and the like. And then there’s the work of Earle Holland. Or rather, there was the work of Earle Holland for 33 years at Ohio State University. He’s leaving April 6, after being told that “that leadership wanted to take [...]
This is how my local CBS station, WCCO in Minneapolis, teased and promoted a story about the surgeon who worked on Adele’s vocal cord polyp. Miracle? Really? Why do journalists feel the need to elevate stories about celebrities and their doctors to this level? For almost six years, we have worked through our HealthNewsReview.org project [...]
This is just a periodic reminder to our readers: yes, we are aware of the difficult economic times many are facing in the news industry. The news of the Washington Post offering staff buyouts for the fifth time in recent years is just the latest example. Sometimes journalists will write to us, defensively, saying things [...]
As we close out the week and prepare to head to a beach for a desperately-needed mid-winter break, here are some catch-up items we meant to write about earlier. NPR interview with author of The Information Diet making the case for “conscious consumption of news and information.” We certainly make that case for health news [...]
A journalist brought this to my attention. It’s a case of dueling messages on the websites of the two big Chicago newspapers. One is a news story. The other is nothing but an unvetted health care industry news release. On a Chicago Sun-Times website, a local medical center posts a news release touting its “new [...]
3 months ago we blogged about a longtime Tampa Bay TV anchorman shifting – in retirement – to being a paid spokesman for a Medicare Advantage plan. Now we see that former Charleston, SC The Post and Courier columnist Ken Burger is doing promotions for a local health care provider organization, but it’s how this [...]
“TV newscasts are increasingly seeded with corporate advertising masquerading as news — and the federal government wants to do something about it,” reports the Washington Post. It’s an issue that may have arisen more often with health news than with any other topic. A quick (and probably incomplete) scan of this blog shows we’ve written [...]
This isn’t a health news story. But it could have been. TVSpy.com estimates that 27 local TV stations across the country all used the same script for filler material. They reported: Conan O’Brien poked fun at content-sharing in local news this week, showing a clip on his show of several anchors repeating the same phrase [...]
This story focuses on a family that may have a rare genetic mutation that increases their risk of heart disease. Unfortunately, the “rare” part wasn’t mentioned until 1,600 words into this 2,100 word story.
While this story adequately addressed 7 of our 10 criteria, the 3 on which it missed were significant omissions, yet could have been easily addressed.
Solid medical conference reporting, with many expert interviews and good context provided. Goes far beyond the conference presentation itself.
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