“Trust me, you’re going to be shocked….we all should be a little bit afraid.”
That’s how “The Doctors” TV show teases one of its programs, along with this:
“Each year, millions of chemicals are poured into American foods. From doughnuts to fresh produce, The Doctors reveals the toxic ingredients lurking in your grocery bag. And, what you could be getting along with a cup of pasta!”
A journalist wrote to me about it, calling it “Fear-mongering at its best.”
In the tsunami of health information that washes over the American public every day, we are forced to ride the waves of “cures” to “scares” not only in news stories but in advertising and in non-news TV programming.
I’m reminded of the British website, “Kill or Cure?” which says it offers “Help to make sense of the Daily Mail’s ongoing effort to classify every inanimate object into those that cause cancer and those that prevent it.”
Maybe I should rename my blog, because much of what we write about is the spectrum of claims of what will cure you or kill you – often disease-mongering and fear-mongering in action.
Opinions on other issues in news, journals, PR, advertising, marketing
The tale of two “negative” studies. Or, how spin is applied to make research findings look more impressive. A must read. https://johnmandrola.substack.com/p/the-tale-of-two-negative-studies
The @nytimes chose to interview one of the editors of the @AnnalsofIM (publisher of this paper) who "gushed with extraordinary glee: It’s huge! There are very few things that reduce your mortality by 30%."
Turns out coffee is not one of those few things despite all that glee. https://twitter.com/garyschwitzer/status/1533202075928215558
Comments
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Rorr
March 17, 2012 at 8:27 amWHY ON EARTH Would anyone watch this show. Its nothing but fear based people control…
“Ohhh better do this or you will catch the cancer!QQ!!!!!”
Its all fear based mind control.
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