This week, the American Psychiatric Association released proposed changes to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM. In an update to a story that originally aired in December of last year, Brooke looks at this powerful book and the controversies surrounding the ...

The week, The Lancet formally retracted a deeply flawed study that suggested a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. The 1998 study has provided fuel for the anti-vaccine movement for years. The Lancet's editor Richard Horton describes how this debacle has ...

Cyberchondria refers to the practice of using Internet search engines to wrongly diagnose oneself with serious illnesses. Carolyn Butler, columnist for The Washington Post, talks about how cyberchondria came to be and she discusses her own bout with the dread disease.

According to Gary Schwitzer, there are a few TV M.D.’s who are trying to do good work. Dr. Jonathan LaPook , medical correspondent for "The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric" is one of them. He explains how he struggles to do more with less.

Blue M&M's may cure paralysis! That’s just one claim made recently in a health segment on network TV. For more than three years, HealthNewsReview.org editor Gary Schwitzer has been methodically reviewing TV health news claims for accuracy and responsibility. But no more; he’s found ...

Is our fear of biotechnology impeding the scientific progress we once revered? Michael Specter thinks so. In his new book Denialism, Specter says irrational thinking has led the opposition of vaccines and genetically modified food. The internet and the news media aren’t helping either.

Science departments at newspapers everywhere are shrinking. One outlet that aims to help fill the coverage gap is Futurity.org, a new website that lets scientists publish their findings directly to the public. Michael Schoenfeld, Futurity’s co-founder, explains the site’s mission.

In 1976, President Gerald Ford authorized the National Influenza Immunization Program to inoculate every American against an impending swine flu epidemic. But despite government predictions of one million dead, only one confirmed fatality was recorded by the end of the year. In May, Bob spoke with science writer Patrick Di ...

A 14-year-old British girl named Natalie Morton died last week after receiving a vaccine for cervical cancer. Her tragic death was a result of a tumor near her heart but the media coverage stoked the nation's fear about vaccines. Physician and Guardian columnist

As people get the H1N1 vaccine, there will inevitably be cases of seizures, heart attacks, strokes and miscarriages -- all unrelated to the vaccine itself. Centers for Disease Control media relations director Glen Nowak says his agency is reminding reporters about the difference between correlation and causation.

In discussing national health care plans, reporters, politicians and especially critics have been fond of invoking the failed Clinton plan of '93 & '94. Paul Starr, Princeton professor and author of The Social Transformation of American Medicine, says the history of national health care and its discontents is ...

With Congress in recess, much of the fight over health care reform has migrated to the airwaves as millions of dollars of advertisements are rolled out, primarily by critics. But how accurate are these ads? Brooks Jackson, director of factcheck.org, says not very. He explains what misinformation looks ...

In a lawsuit last month against drug manufacturer Merck, the plaintiff introduced a 'peer reviewed journal' strongly supportive of Merck drugs. The ‘journal’, it turned out, was paid for by Merck and its peer-review status was a fraud. Since then, six other journals have been revealed – all falsely identified ...

Twenty years ago this week 60 Minutes introduced much of the country to Alar, a chemical used to make apples ripen on time. They argued that Alar was also an unregulated carcinogen, after which a panic ensued. Food journalist Michael Pollan argues that the fallout ...

Being a brilliant scientist doesn't always translate into being a good talking head on television or even a good source for a science reporter. So the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program at Stanford University was created to give scientists a better understanding of how to deal with the media. ...

News reports on climate change now have the tone of certainty that global warming is upon us. But there is anything but certainty when it comes to the cost of action. Shorenstein Fellow Eric Pooley says the media don't scrutinize the economic projections of ...

A journalist’s non-disclosure of millions in pharmaceutical company payments is an obvious conflict of interest. But Gary Schwitzer, director of the University of Minnesota’s Health Journalism Program, explains that what’s ailing news consumers is all the other subtle, insidious ways that Big Pharma’s influence turns up ...

Pharmaceutical companies spend millions on marketing. Some of those dollars end up in the hands of doctors, researchers and in one case, a public radio host from "The Infinite Mind." An article in Slate back in May led to an investigation by Sen. Charles Grassley, whose findings ended ...

Energy independence should be a topic for wide-ranging discussion about science, economics and lifestyle. But David Fiderer, an energy banker and Huffington Post blogger, says reporters are allowing politicians to hijack the conversation, making it about left and right all the while leaving reality out of the picture.

Remember Harry and Louise? They were really worried about the Clinton health care plan in 1993. They're worried again! But this time, for entirely new reasons. WNYC's Fred Mogul explains.