Troubling TV Health News Trends

You, the consumer, are getting it from all angles. In the diet domain, the results are lost money, time and life.

This is covered in Why Diets Fail: The Simple Mistake That Ruins Millions Of Lives available at
FitnessMed.com

Not only are the gurus, sick care players and government trying to kill you, but the media are their partners.

If you want to survive the sick care system, it is important to know your enemies.

To read the source of this article from CJR, I have provided the URL below.

http://www.cjr.org/issues/2007/2/Lieberman.asp

The following quotes are from the title article:

"In the February issue of Columbia Journalism Review (CJR), Trudy Lieberman writes about TV news stations accepting pre-packaged new stories created by health care behemoths such as the Cleveland Clinic or the Mayo Clinic, creating stories that are 'a hybrid of news and marketing, the likes of which has spread to local TV newsrooms all across the country in a variety of forms, almost like an epidemic. It’s the product of a marriage of the hospitals’ desperate need to compete for lucrative lines of business in our current health system and of TV’s hunger for cheap and easy stories. In some cases the hospitals pay for airtime, a sponsorship, and in others, they don’t but still provide expertise and story ideas. Either way, the result is that too often the hospitals control the story. Viewers who think they are getting news are really getting a form of advertising. And critical stories—hospital infection rates, for example, or medical mistakes or poor care— tend not to be covered in such a cozy atmosphere. The public, which could use real health reporting these days, gets something far less than quality, arms- length journalism.'"

Example - CNN's incredibility:

"On March 10, Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s HouseCall program on CNN featured a story on anxiety disorders, and offered one of those handy self-assessments that allows you to diagnose yourself with almost anything under the sun. Gupta said only one in five people with anxiety disorders get help. Then he offered a self-assessment from the Anxiety Disorders Association of America (ADAA). He said if you answered yes to any of the questions, you could seek help from your doctor or from ADAA.

He did not mention that the ADAA’s corporate advisory council is made up of drug companies Eli Lilly & Company, Forest Laboratories, Pfizer, Inc. and Wyeth.

On February 6, CNN reported on 'ArteFill, billed as the first permanent filler.' CNN said 'known side effects are minimal.'

But it's easy to find the following on the FDA website:

Side effects of ArteFill® include:
* Lumpiness at injection area more than one month after injection
* Persistent swelling or redness
* Increased sensitivity
* Rash, itching more than 48 hours after injection"

Example - NBC's incredibility:

"And NBC hit the trifecta with three recent stories:

* NBC’s Mike Taibbi getting his lungs scanned for cancer, then personally endorsing the scans. (The benefits of such scans were questioned in a study in JAMA in March.)
* NBC’ s Josh Mankiewicz reporting on the 'benefits' from GlaxoSmithKline ads for a restless leg syndrome drug – ads they featured during the NBC Nightly News.
* NBC using some of its tight 22-minutes of airtime to report on a “laser hair comb” showing a graphic - 'Hair breakthrough?'."

Demand change.

Take back your body.

They will kill you for money.