The Political Interests of the Media
An interesting article appears in the Journal of Medical Ethics, December 2012, vol. 38, pp. 768-770, titled “Medicine, the media and political interests,” by Wendy Lipworth, Ian Kerridge, Bronwen Morrell, Catriona Bonfiglioli, and Rowena Forsyth. The authors mention how the news media is often criticized for failing to support the goals of government health programs. The authors mention a statement in the American Journal of Public Health “(i)nadequate, misleading or incomplete news reporting constitutes a public health threat. Such reporting can lead people to make misguided choices that may put their health at risk or influence policymakers to adopt inadequate or harmful laws, regulations, or policies.” Some have even argued that the media should consider it’s health functions to be more important than it’s other functions. The authors state “News journalism prides itself on providing a public service as a … Read more