July 2, 2009

Goozner wonders why everyone is shocked over WPost story

Posted By

Tags

The Politico.com story about the Washington Post “pay for access” proposal isn’t astonishing to Merrill Goozner, who writes:

It’s a long standing practice by one of the few sections of the news business that remains profitable — the newsletter and trade journal business. There’s also a vibrant conference sponsorship industry that sells exclusive access to top government officials.

For instance, a Texas-based outfit called Pharma Education Concepts, Ltd. is running one of its trademarked “Pharma Conferences” in Cambridge, Maryland in late-August. Dubbed “GMP By The Sea,” the meeting brings top drug industry executives together with Food and Drug Administration officials to hear the latest thinking on globalization and the regulation of drug and biologic manufacturing processes. Featured speaker this year is Murray Lumpkin, deputy FDA commissioner for international and special programs. Pricetag: $1,495 a ticket.

In mid-June, a scrappy industry newsletter called FDAWebview filed a citizens petition with the FDA demanding journalistic access to this and any private meetings where FDA officials appear. Its editor couldn’t afford the $1,495 needed to send a reporter to cover the GMP By The Sea meeting where Lumpkin, a public official, might say something newsworthy.

The real issue is what will be the ground rules for these Post-sponsored conferences. The public has the right to know what gets said in these meetings with its elected representatives and civil servants. I stand with FDAWebview. Any session where a top government official appears should be open to the news media, right on down to the lowliest blogger.

As always, thanks for the perspective, Gooz.

Comments

Please note, comments are no longer published through this website. All previously made comments are still archived and available for viewing through select posts.

Comments are closed.

COMMENTS button We welcome comments, which users can leave at the end of any of our systematic story reviews or at the end of any of our blog posts.

But before leaving a comment, please review these notes about our policy.

You are responsible for any comments you leave on this site.

This site is primarily a forum for discussion about the quality (or lack thereof) in journalism or other media messages (advertising, marketing, public relations, medical journals, etc.) It is not intended to be a forum for definitive discussions about medicine or science.

We will delete comments that include personal attacks, unfounded allegations, unverified claims, product pitches, profanity or any from anyone who does not list a full name and a functioning email address. We will also end any thread of repetitive comments. We don”t give medical advice so we won”t respond to questions asking for it.

We don”t have sufficient staffing to contact each commenter who left such a message. If you have a question about why your comment was edited or removed, you can email us at feedback@healthnewsreview.org.

There has been a recent burst of attention to troubles with many comments left on science and science news/communication websites. Read “Online science comments: trolls, trash and treasure.”

The authors of the Retraction Watch comments policy urge commenters:

“Shed light, not just heat. Facts, challenges, disagreements, corrections — those are all fine. Attacking the person, instead of the idea or the interpretation, is neither acceptable nor helpful.”

We”re also concerned about anonymous comments. We ask that all commenters leave their full name and provide an actual email address in case we feel we need to contact them. We may delete any comment left by someone who does not leave their name and a legitimate email address.

And, as noted, product pitches of any sort – pushing treatments, tests, products, procedures, physicians, medical centers, books, websites – are likely to be deleted. We don”t accept advertising on this site and are not going to give it away free.

The ability to leave comments expires after a certain period of time. So you may find that you’re unable to leave a comment on an article that is more than a few months old.