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
Monday at #ADA2021, an infectious disease epidemiologist, a journalist, and a researcher shared perspectives on communication of risk in the era of COVID-19: http://ow.ly/ROfR30rMeE7 @AstleyCM @garyschwitzer @berthahidalgo @ADA_DiabetesPro
Shoutouts to @susan_bewley @drkevinknopf @MichaelBaum11 in this call for more than fawning coverage from press releases for these kinds of stories.
Also, linked history inside goes back 5 years just on Grail apparently trying to become Holy Grail. https://twitter.com/garyschwitzer/status/1408849696416841731
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