The Texas Tribune offers an alternative model for reporting on the politics of reproductive health policies. This piece, printed in The New York Times, opens and closes with the stories of women who are impacted by clinics in Texas that are closing after the state legislature eliminated funds for women’s health care as a way to cut off support to Planned Parenthood. While the politics of the situation need ample space for reporters Pam Belluck and Emily Ramshaw to explain, they make sure to keep the citizens and voters—who are impacted—at the center of the story. That sort of approach would have made the News’s smart package even stronger.
United States Project
04:38 PM - April 4, 2012
Detroit News Offers Smart Take on Family Planning Feud
But reporters should have talked to, not just about, women
‘See you on the other side’ - Meet Jessica Lum, a terminally ill 25-year-old who chose to spend what little time she had practicing journalism
#Realtalk: This is the best moment to be in journalism - The old stuff isn’t coming back, but that’s okay
Streams of consciousness - Millennials expect a steady diet of quick-hit, social-media-mediated bits and bytes. What does that mean for journalism?
Sticking with the truth - How ‘balanced’ coverage helped sustain the bogus claim that childhood vaccines can cause autism
An ink-stained stretch - Can Aaron Kushner save the Orange County Register—and the newspaper industry?
What to do if you find a baby bird
Expert advice
Inside Google’s secret lab
We might deplore the practice, but posting pictures of our food online is a way to bring everyone to the table
How the ‘World’s 50 Best’ list changed the way elite restaurants do business
“Every time the restaurant switched up its format, it got plenty of accompanying media coverage that let judges know they needed to return to see what was going on”
CJR's Guide to Online News Startups
Uptown Messenger – Hyperlocal news for a neighborhood in New Orleans
Who Owns What
The Business of Digital Journalism
A report from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Questions and exercises for journalism students.
I have my doubts as to the trustworthiness of the NY Times piece. For example, it stated that Planned Parenthood gives out birth control pills for free and without critical funding from the government, they might have to charge up to $20 a month … but how could this be? After all, if we learned anything from Sandra Fluke’s testimony, its that contraception costs an order of magnitude more than that, $1000 a year to be precise.
#1 Posted by Mike H, CJR on Wed 4 Apr 2012 at 05:04 PM
Mike H, the gap is filled through private donations and through staff working free or below market rate. A cash price of $50 x 12 = $600/yr for pills plus $300 or so for a yearly pelvic exam and lab fees would not be far out of line in an area like DC with a high cost of living, and while I'll grudgingly allow 20% for rounding error, I won't let a factor of 2.5 pass. ;)
#2 Posted by Jonathan, CJR on Wed 4 Apr 2012 at 05:27 PM
Target sells the generic version of Ortho Tri-Cyclen for $9/month… so I guess the real question is Planned Parenthood ripping these women off?
#3 Posted by Mike H, CJR on Wed 4 Apr 2012 at 05:34 PM
Not every one can take generics, Mike. Despite having the same active ingredients, the difference in the inactive ingredients can cause significant reactions in some women.
#4 Posted by Thalia, CJR on Thu 5 Apr 2012 at 05:14 AM
Target's $9 contraceptives, just like the $4 or free antibiotics seen almost everywhere, are likely promotional loss leaders to get your business when you need to come fill the more profitable scripts (and they are profitable). The lowest average wholesale cost of a single cycle of 21-day oral contraception with 7 placebo days is $19.64, according to MediSpan in July 2010 as cited in a benefits management firm's negative evaluation (PDF) of a formulary candidate (see pp. 3-5). The lowest AWP for a triphasic formula equivalent to Tri-Cyclen is a few dollars more. On p. 2 it is suggested that someone somewhere got a $10/mo wholesale deal on some sort of contraceptive cycle at least once, and we can only speculate as to who and where.
#5 Posted by Jonathan, CJR on Thu 5 Apr 2012 at 11:46 AM