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A journalists’ non-disclosure of millions of dollars in pharmaceutical company payments is an obvious conflict of interest case. 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 in the news we use.
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 up in a New York Times piece last week. We spoke with NPR's David Folkenflik and Sen. Grassley about the controversy.
Correction: Brooke and Bob make a correction to this story.
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 in the news we use.
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.
For years now, psychologists at universities across the country have been studying bias, and tests show that we're often unaware of our own hidden agenda. Professor Tony Greenwald describes the Implicit Association Test.
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.
In a series of blog posts for the Columbia Journalism Review, CJR Contributing Editor Trudy Lieberman takes the press to task for its under-coverage of both candidates' proposals for health insurance reform. And she explains why Obama's plan is neither 'national' nor 'universal.'
At the forefront of retail medicine are the many companies selling genetic testing over the internet. But in recent months over a dozen of these companies have received cease-and-desist letters from state regulators. Biomedical ethics professor David Magnus explains the stakes when we lose the right to hear the story our genes tell about us.
