Did it come from a study? Or straight out of the Wall Street Journal? Last week the CBS early show brought on another physician-correspondent to talk about the benefits of coffee drinking. Anchor Harry Smith referred to “this new study.” What new study? None was referenced.
What the segment was apparently based on was a Wall Street Journal story that same day that had ALL of the same information. No attribution was given.
Smith laughed in talking about “the study” showing that 6 cups a day of coffee lowered a man’s risk of advanced prostate cancer. He chuckled, “I don’t know how you get a control group for that or how this works…” Clearly he doesn’t know. Because “the study” in question didn’t have a control group and wasn’t a true experiment. It was an observational study.
When I was a kid, there was a Sunday morning TV show in which the host read the comics straight from the newspaper.
Maybe the CBS Early Show should just read us the health news straight out of the paper.
It could only be an improvement.
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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