“The lead story in The Washington Post’s Health section last week, on why some people seem immune to AIDS, focused in part on a top physician at Massachusetts General Hospital.
The work of researcher Bruce Walker, who runs the hospital’s Partners AIDS Research Center, was first spotlighted in the third and fourth paragraphs. The article ended with a dutiful disclosure that it was condensed from one that had run in Proto, the magazine of, yes, Massachusetts General Hospital.
What gives? Health Editor Frances Stead Sellers, who obtained the piece without charge, says Proto is “one of the best biomedical magazines,” that the article was by an established freelancer and that she was transparent about the story’s origin. “The cure for a perceived conflict is disclosure. . . . I felt with this piece I was bringing something very interesting to readers,” she says.
The magazine is produced by Time Inc. Content Solutions, where spokeswoman Carrie Jones says the hospital gets to review all copy and “to bask in the reflected glory” of a high-quality publication.
Sellers, who had run an earlier piece from Proto, says early-retirement buyouts at The Post have cut the weekly section’s full-time staff from four to none, forcing her to rely heavily on freelancers. “If I had a whole bundle of reporters, I wouldn’t be thinking of doing this,” she says. “
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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