Weekly digest - June 18, 2012
devoted to news about the myriad messages about health care interventions that flood Americans daily
Academic freedom in question over prof's editorial on PSA screening

InsideHigherEd.com called it "intimidation tactics" when UC-Davis administrators took action against Dr. Michael Wilkes after his editorial appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle. Read what happened next.

Other items from the previous week:
Bloomberg supersizing 
The Daily Show's Jon Stewart has taken his shots at it 
 
How well did these stories address our 10 criteria? 

  • Seaweed supplement may aid weight loss: study 

    There are so many ways a story about seaweed for weight loss could have been hyped.  This story, though, artfully dodged all of those ways, stuck to the evidence, and gave a thorough report. Interesting sidenote:  written by an intern.  Off to a great start!  5 Star

This is a shallow piece of journalism.  Cite a large meta-analysis - but don't quote any of the researchers.  Yet turn the story over to one US critic, who doesn't cite any evidence.  1 Star


In a short piece - fewer than 500 words - this story addressed most of our criteria.4 Star

 

The parade of stories about coffee preventing this or that disease continues. We wish there was more skepticism applied to these kinds of studies. And we wish such stories would remind readers that correlation does not equal causation.    3 Star



Industry editorial opposing device tax makes outlandish claim about impact of devices 
Wahlstrom editorial

We try to address and  to correct any misleading claims about medical interventions whenever we see them - whatever the source.  And this editorial made a whopper! 
AHCJ Philly 3
Gary Schwitzer                                  Publisher                                                                 
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