Columbia Journalism Review

I found this interesting blog called the CJR Daily: Real Time Media Analysis from the Columbia Journalism Review. I think I'm going to start visiting it regularly.

One post talked about how credulous the media is about medical reporting:

In an interview with CJR Daily in December, James B. Steele, co-author of Critical Condition: How Health Care in America Became Big Business -- and Bad Medicine, criticized the news media for being a lap-dog of the pharmaceutical and health industries: "The press is filled with tales of the latest wonder drug or a procedure that will dramatically improve our well-being. They read like PR handouts and play to the public's anxieties about health. There is seldom a hint of skepticism."

Another post read:

If you believe what you read or hear in the media, we're a nation of invalids.
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Greve cites some examples:

A Baltimore Sun report says 20 million Americans suffer from depression. A patient-care newsletter says 10 million Americans older than 50 have the bone-wasting disease osteoporosis. Other published reports say 13 million Americans have hypothyroidism, 7.9 million are alcoholics, 40 million have the hearing defect known as tinnitus, 62 million have digestive diseases and 70 million have some form of arthritis.

U.S. population: 293 million.
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Who's pushing the numbers? Says Greve: "[B]io-statisticians blame drug companies and reporters for much of the hype. They also blame research institutes and disease foundations seeking more public spending on particular diseases."

It's so good to find others who see what I see.