First, this is not “beat up on the Star Tribune week.” There’s no agenda here. Sometimes events and patterns unfold before one’s eyes.
On Monday, in my “Proportionality in Journalism” entry, I wrote about Mother’s Day weekend stories in several media – “endless weapy stories about breast cancer. But few hard issue-oriented stories about breast cancer. About the dilemmas in diagnosis and treatment, in funding, in consumer decision-making.”
Today, a woman who describes herself as a veteran oncology nurse has a letter to the editor in the Star Tribune.
She writes: “As a longtime oncology nurse, I was pleased to see the May 15 front-page story about the Susan Komen Race for the Cure. As the name of the event implies, there is not yet a cure for metastatic breast cancer. This important fact was then obscured by the reporter’s choice to focus on a young woman who is seeking treatment unsupported by the type of rigorous scientific study that the Komen Foundation funds. The story pulls at the heartstrings, but fails to inform us about proven treatments and the progress that has been made in prolonging and improving the lives of women with breast cancer. A physician who offers his treatment as the ‘only hope’ is, sadly, too good to be true.”
Her letter is a call for evidence-based medical reporting. And proportionality. That’s the backbone of my week-long tirade about what I’ve seen – and not seen – in Twin Cities health news this week.
It may be time to listen to the readers and viewers. They’re not happy. That may be why readership and viewership are declining.
Opinions on other issues in news, journals, PR, advertising, marketing
We’ve written about the hype of liquid biopsies for years (see link in comment below). And now this…. https://www.statnews.com/2022/01/12/medicare-shouldnt-cover-liquid-biopsies-early-cancer-detection/
Case counts still matter. “(There) are stories that may not be told adequately if only hospitalizations and deaths are emphasized.” @garyschwitzer interviewed by @dbauder of @AP. https://apnews.com/article/omicron-changing-news-outlets-covid-data-da9272f7c4c8a109c3bfb56bed9e9c76
My friend Gary @garyschwitzer wrote to his city council representative in a Minnesota town about a Viva Las Vegas event scheduled for January.
The response he got seems to perfectly capture where we are now.
https://www.healthnewsreview.org/2021/12/2021-ends-with-covid-craziness-in-sports-and-politics/
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