SIRC Media Watch Archive
Comment and Opinion – January 2000
Naming & Praising update. The SIRC Naming & Praising campaign highlights two examples of responsible reporting of health issues in the 10th January Express. Maggie Morgan reports on a researcher's claim that most heart disease and cancer deaths are caused by x-rays, but avoids causing unnecessary alarm by stating in the first line of her piece that these claims have been widely denounced as misleading and unscientific. Such messages are all too often relegated to the very end of reports, with the more dramatic 'scare' elements dominating the lead paragraphs. Morgan's piece is a refreshing and welcome exception to this common practice. As well as generating false fears, news reports often raise false hopes.
Martin Stote is careful to avoid this in his report on research showing that curry spices might play a role in fighting colon cancer. He makes it clear that while initial findings seem promising, much more research and testing will be required to determine the effects of the curcumin spice, and that this work could take up to ten years to complete. (A report on the same story in the Mirror, by contrast, makes no mention of such caveats.)
Lukewarm response to 'non-science' GM ban.
The media response to Tesco's banning of crops grown on former GM trial sites has been decidedly lukewarm. Only the Daily Mail gave it prominence. Most other papers did not report the story, while those that did (Guardian, Express) were careful to include the Government's comments to the effect that this was a "marketing stunt" with no basis in science. Even Tesco has admitted that the new policy is "not about science but the perception of science." More…
The proposal by Dr Tom Marshall to introduce VAT on fatty foods is unfair, unscientific and ineffective as a means of combating heart disease. Marshall's BMJ article was quoted in almost every newspaper, but only a few cited the highly critical commentary which the BMJ published alongside Marshall's piece, pointing out that even if dietary modifications could be achieved by such a tax (which the commentators suggest is extremely unlikely), the main determinant of how any individual responds to reducing fat in the diet is genetic. More…
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), which advocates a vegetarian diet, filed a motion in U.S. District Court on Wednesday night seeking to block the release of the American government panel's recommendations on official dietary guidelines. Reuters. The current dietary and health recommendations, adopted in 1980, are widely used by doctors, nutritionists and food makers. They are the basis of the well-known USDA food pyramid used to teach children healthy eating habits. The new working draft once again endorses milk and dairy products as a key source of calcium. PCRM, however, claims that it should instead be encouraging people to avoid this 'animal product' and eat leafy green vegetables, beans and calcium-fortified fruit juice instead. To see how barking the arguments of PCRM really are, visit their web site.
Naming & Praising update. The SIRC Naming & Praising campaign highlights two examples of responsible reporting of health issues in the 10th January Express. Maggie Morgan reports on a researcher's claim that most heart disease and cancer deaths are caused by x-rays, but avoids causing unnecessary alarm by stating in the first line of her piece that these claims have been widely denounced as misleading and unscientific. Such messages are all too often relegated to the very end of reports, with the more dramatic 'scare' elements dominating the lead paragraphs. Morgan's piece is a refreshing and welcome exception to this common practice. As well as generating false fears, news reports often raise false hopes.
Martin Stote is careful to avoid this in his report on research showing that curry spices might play a role in fighting colon cancer. He makes it clear that while initial findings seem promising, much more research and testing will be required to determine the effects of the curcumin spice, and that this work could take up to ten years to complete. (A report on the same story in the Mirror, by contrast, makes no mention of such caveats.)
Lukewarm response to 'non-science' GM ban.
The media response to Tesco's banning of crops grown on former GM trial sites has been decidedly lukewarm. Only the Daily Mail gave it prominence. Most other papers did not report the story, while those that did (Guardian, Express) were careful to include the Government's comments to the effect that this was a "
marketing stunt" with no basis in science. Even Tesco has admitted that the new policy is "not about science but the perception of science." More…
Missing links?
There is a Marx Brothers film in which the brothers are searching for hidden treasure in a house. When no treasure is found after an exhaustive search, one brother suggests that they may have the wrong house – that perhaps the treasure is hidden in the house next door. On looking outside, the brothers find to their dismay that there is no house next door. They immediately begin drawing up plans to build one.
A similarly crazed logic appears to have replaced rational scientific enquiry among epidemiologists. In a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine, three supposedly sane researchers report that although there is no major obesity problem in Hong Kong, there is a high prevalence of disorders normally 'linked' with obesity, such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension and dyslipidemia, often occurring among patients who are well within the 'normal' BMI (body mass index) range. More…
