An Oprah threat to your health and the health of your children? Have you been misled?

Find out at www.Oprahcide.com or www.DeathByOprah.com

See FTC complaints about Oprah and her diet experts at www.JailForOprah.com

Friday, January 02, 2009

Communicating Medical News — Pitfalls of Health Care Journalism

Starting off the new year with the pot calling the kettle black.
"Whether they realize it or not, journalists reporting on health care developments deliver public health messages that can influence the behavior of clinicians and patients. Often these messages are delivered effectively by seasoned reporters who perform thoughtfully even in the face of breaking news and tight deadlines. But all too frequently, what is conveyed about health by many other journalists is wrong or misleading."
This tripe is from The New England Journal of Medicine, IMHO, one of your executioners. It's author is Susan Dentzer of PBS.

Though she describes a real issue, crappy sick care reporting, what she does not do is describe the very real issue of crappy sick care research and crappy sick care messages that are the subjects of crappy sick care reporting.
"More broadly, a problem that is worsening in this era of the 24/7 news cycle is the frequent failure to put new developments into any kind of reasonable context for readers or viewers."
This is clearly the case in Big Sick Care's failure to put weight loss and exercise recommendations "into any kind of reasonable context for readers or viewers" or patients.

Though Dentzer adopts an "I holier than thou" attitude vis-a-vis her colleagues, she is, at least based on this piece, nothing more than a "useful idiot" to Big Sick Care and the MSM.

Know with certainty, that when it comes to your "health," the MSM and Big Sick Care are your enemies.

Despite covering themselves in sheep's clothing.

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