Last year I published an article documenting several instances of U.S. journalists’ apparent bias in favor of certain screening tests – in the absence of evidence supporting such tests in they way they were being promoted.
Now it’s just come to my attention that an Australian team published an article in November describing an analysis of Australian news coverge of prostate cancer screening. Their conclusion:
“Australian men are exposed to unbalanced and often non-evidence-based appeals to seek PSA testing. There is a disturbing lack of effort to redress this imbalance.”
Of special note is how the authors documented the “widespread, overwhelmingly negative” reaction to a statement by the head of an Australian cancer agency who told a newspaper that, at age 59, he chose not to have a PSA test.
And journalists seemed to join in the ad hominem attacks. All because the man spoke from a perspective of evidence and science, not faith and emotion.
We will continue to follow journalism’s role in promoting non-evidence-based approaches and will address it whenever we see it.
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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