Side effects of getting your health news from morning news shows may include dizziness, nausea, anxiety, confusion, false hope…
Prof. Gary Schwitzer and his team at the University of Minnesota confirm (with specific examples) your suspicion that health news reporting on morning news shows could be bad for your health. Reports Schwitzer:
By reviewing health news coverage every day, we are able to see big pictures of clear patterns unfolding that the casual day-to-day news consumer may miss.
One picture is quite clear. The morning health news segments on ABC, CBS and NBC do the following regularly:
* Unquestioningly promote new drugs and new technologies
* Feed the “worried well” by raising unrealistic expectations of unproven technologies that may produce more harm than good
* Fail to ask tough questions
* Make any discussion of health care reform that much more difficult
h/t, MinnPost
