Conflict of Interest

Next time you read a story about drug companies you should probably question the bias of the reporter. According to the Society of Professional Journalists the National Press Foundation has accepted funding from the drug company Pfizer to offer journalism fellowships on cancer issues. This promotion of the opportunity is a direct violation of SPJ's by-laws which state they should "avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived" and "remain free of associations and activities that may compromise integrity or damage credibility."

But that's not all. At its national conference in Indianapolis coming up in August, this "professional" journalism group will offer a tour of the Eli Lilly drug company corporate headquarters.

And they don't see this as a conflict of interest? Are we surprised at the recent flood of anti-CAM stories showing up in the media? Whatever happened to professional ethics? As a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists this behavior doesn't come as a surprise to me but it is disappointing. Yes there is a war going on for the minds (and wallets) of America during the health care reform effort but journalists are supposed to be objective reporters of events, not PR hacks on the take to promote one viewpoint.

To be fair, some journalists are raising objections about the disappearance of professional standards and I commend their efforts to reform their field before all credibility is lost. Hopefully these organizations will listen before they become the headline in their own story.

Health Media Bias

I seem to have kicked the hornet's nest recently with a post to the Association of Health Care Journalists about bias against complementary and alternative therapies. Wow! I didn't expect the outburst of responses claiming there was no such thing. Fortunately there were some other brave souls who joined the discussion after that round to respond that yes, in fact, there was clearly a bias in reporting against CAM.

If the buggy makers had been in charge of evaluating the effectiveness of the automobile we'd still be riding horses. The media prefers to turn a blind eye to the influence of money and politics in their coverage of health care. They prefer to rationalize how we spend more on health care than any other nation on earth but rank so poorly compared to other industrialized countries. They bury stories that taint the world of mainstream medicine as if it were heresy.

How can they report on something that they know so little about is my first question? Why don't they demand the same level of research and "proof" for mainstream medicine? I guess with so many jobs disappearing today they prefer to keep their eyes closed and their heads down because most health "reporters" today are simply reporting what the hospitals or drug companies sponsoring the news tell them to cover.

Meditation Fights AIDS

There is a new study out on Mindfulness Meditation and how it boosts the immune system to fight AIDS in just a few weeks. There was a direct correlation because the more often the volunteers meditated, the higher their CD4 T-cell counts. Those are cells are a standard measure of how well the immune system is fighting the AIDS virus. The CD4 counts were measured before and after the two-month program.

Following on the footsteps of Dr. Dean Ornish's research that the Ornish Program can switch our genes to help fight cancer it's clear there is a new trend beginning. There are better options than prescription drugs!

Now if we could only get the news media to cover CAM as well as they cover their friends in the pharmaceutical industry.

Lost Opportunity to Save Lives

The sudden death of journalist Tim Russert was a shock to everyone. He had just passed a heart stress test two weeks prior to collapsing at work. His loss is shared by family, friends and his many media colleagues and my condolences go out to those who knew him.

In reporting on his death the news media has gone into great detail about how heart disease kills 300,000 Americans every year and is still our #1 cause of death. The news stories have gone into great detail on all of the surgical options, diagnostic tests, even prescription medications on this popular topic. In other words they've covered the story from every possible angle ... but one.

I've seen stories in almost every major media and not once has there been any mention of any complementary and alternative therapy for heart disease. I expected to see at least some mention of the Ornish Program which is the only medically-proven treatment to reverse heart disease. Or perhaps Jon Kabat-Zinn's Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program at the University of Massachusetts Medical School or some other proven CAM therapy. Instead all of the media chose to stick to their AMA-approved script. I'm sure all of the drug companies cheered all the reporting on their wonderful medications, they consider it free advertising.

This is just the latest example of how shallow journalism has become. It's sad and ironic that a journalist who always wanted to get behind the photo-op and underneath the press release became the latest example of the surface reporting that passes for journalism today in our country. Tim Russert, of all people, would've scolded his colleagues to do their job and get the WHOLE story, not just the sound bite.

The result of this media failure is another lost opportunity to help hundreds of thousands of people find better health with complementary and alternative medicine.