Reader's Digest, Newsweek, Fox News, NPR, And More Media Links Last Week

By Hank Campbell — Jan 17, 2018
A busy week for our health and science journalists, who were picked up by a range of media outlets across the political spectrum. Here's how some of our reporting was referenced.

1. NPR linked to our work on the flu, which we predicted would be a concern for the US after seeing it go through Australia, with 5 Things You Need To Know.

2. In Fox News, we were featured in an article on dismantling junk science regulations. Though media seem to have only rediscovered concern about making sure science regulations are evidence-based in the last year, there were unprecedented levels of strange decisions made for years prior to that, from the government seeking to over-medicate Americans by inventing a prediabetes standard the rest of the world refuses to recognize, to undermining smoking cessation and harm reduction for smokers, and a lot more.

3. In Newsweek, we were featured in an article on how propaganda outlets like Russia Today are aiding American environmental groups in their efforts to undermine trust in US science and health.

4. In Reader's Digest, they used our work to outline 5 Things You Didn't Know About HIV.

4. Metro used our work discussing what we will learn - and not learn - from the results of President Trump's physical examination. In the past, Presidents withheld all kinds of information about their results so it is refreshing that the media are suddenly calling for unlimited transparency, but it smacks more of politics than journalism.

5. Becker's Hospital Review echoed our resistance to government efforts to call doctors "providers" and patients "consumers". While it has become commonplace for officials to treat medical care as simply a cost issue - as if a McDonald's fry cook is the same as a chef with a Michelin star - framing policy to encourage that among the public is doing a disservice to us all.

6. In High Plains Journal, our work was featured in an article showing there is no meaningful difference between beef raised conventionally versus organic. There can be a taste difference, if you are rich enough to afford beef from Kobe, Japan, where they feed the steers beer and massage them by hand, you may notice it. So why do organic steers really cost more? Grazing cattle either on grass or corn increased their frame and thus the cattle needed to be fed to a heavier weight to reach the choice grade. So they need their significant price premium to break even, and that means they have to pay industry trade groups to promote the belief that their product is "better" and not reality - that it is just more expensive.