That’s how author Sarah Vowell opens her terrific book, “The Wordy Shipmates,” which I just read. I’ve seen her interviewed but had never read one of her books. Now I can’t wait to jump into the next one.
That opening line was used by one of our medical editors, Dr. John Wong, in reviewing a health news story a while back.
It fits. It especially fits in the context of medicine – or of health journalism, for that matter – when we hear from people whose beliefs or intuition cloud their view of evidence. We’ve seen that quite a bit in discussion of various screening tests recently.
Vowell’s book, about Puritans coming to America, is thought-provoking throughout on that opening theme of the danger of a belief.
Opinions on other issues in news, journals, PR, advertising, marketing
A great read on this weekend’s NYT claims of a cure for Type 1.
Cure for Type 1 diabetes? We’ve been down this road before with NY Times https://www.healthnewsreview.org/2021/11/cure-for-type-1-diabetes-weve-been-down-this-road-before-with-ny-times/
"But it is the framing and the emphasis of the #journalism by a leading science journalist at a leading newspaper that demands scrutiny. It has an impact on readers and on sick people that may cause harm by promoting false hope about extremely preliminary research"
👍👏💪 truth https://twitter.com/garyschwitzer/status/1465399358137024518
Why we should still miss healthnewsreview. https://twitter.com/garyschwitzer/status/1465399358137024518
Comments
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Patricia Laffin
February 8, 2012 at 11:58 amReally? You liked this book? It’s a hate-filled political rant with no attempt at truly understanding the Puritans, or anything else for that matter. It’s just filled with the author’s smug, self-righteous views disguised as a serious book.
Gary Schwitzer
February 8, 2012 at 9:30 pmPatricia,
Yeah, I really liked the book. I didn’t see anything hate-filled in it.
Guess this is why we have the marketplace of ideas and a free and open exchange that doesn’t always end in agreement.
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