I see your point. But for the sake of argument, let's say somebody like Jenny McCarthy announced on her website that she had just been diagnosed with autism that she got from a immunization she received when she was six years old. If you were at the editors desk it seems like you have four choices three of them defensible one of them what CNN and other news orgs seem to have done yesterday:
One, ignore the story; two, report the story as something that McCarthy claimed, without further observation; three, report the story with appropriate reportage on the questionable assumptions and evidence related to her claim; and four, the indefensible option, reporting the story as if it were a fact. On Tuesday, November 11, 2014, Joe Hass <[email protected]> wrote: > I don't disagree with you when it comes to going off a single piece of > information to base an entire news report on. The issue becomes one of the > misapplications of old-school journalism in current day: if you have some > question as to the validity of the story, you shouldn't run the story; but > in this case, you'd effectively be calling Beck at best a misdirector or at > worst a liar. If you press on the (completely valid) disconnects in the > story, you're portrayed as rude or a bully (even though, again, you're > completely right). > > If I was sitting at the editor's desk when this came up, I'd pass. > > On Tue, Nov 11, 2014, 04:03 PGage <[email protected] > <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','[email protected]');>> wrote: > >> FWIW: I found a story on cnn.com that provided a bit more information >> that the original story (though apparently still just based on Beck's self >> report on his own program): >> http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/10/us/glenn-beck-health-issues/index.html >> >> One of the new pieces of information was that Beck moved to Texas to get >> treatment at Carrick Brain Centers, which they describe only as a >> "rehabilitation center". CBC is one of the facilities operated by Frederick >> Robert Carrick who is a chiropractor who apparently developed a new >> speciality in that field called "Chiropractic Neurology". Carrick also >> holds a doctorate in education from Walden University, which is an online >> school. This appears to be the "doctor" that Beck is referring to. >> >> ABC news did a short story on him a couple of years ago: >> http://abcnews.go.com/Health/chiropractic-neurology-breakthrough-placebo/story?id=17027630&singlePage=true >> . >> >> Chiropractic treatment is, I think it is fair to say, controversial. I >> don't want to offend anyone here (I know those who support it are often >> quite passionate about it), but my (limited) understanding is that the best >> empirical investigations have not reported evidence that it is effective, >> for conditions much less serious that TBI and the symptoms described by >> Beck. I have not been able to locate any scientific study of "Chiropractic >> Neurology" per se, but I was alarmed by Carrick's attitude in the fairly >> tame interview published on the ABC site regarding suggestions that the >> beneficial effects he reports using (from what I can tell) exclusively >> anecdotes are the result of the placebo effect. Rather than supply >> references for scientific evidence for what he does, he just repeated and >> generalized anecdotes. >> >> If Glen Beck was in significant pain previously, and now feels better, >> then I am happy for him. I would be concerned if his testimonial encouraged >> others with serious neurological problems to seek similar treatment, at >> least in the absence of more and better evidence. >> >> I am also concerned with the quality of the "journalism" reflected in the >> few reports I read about Beck's reports this evening. They all (including >> cnn.com) parroted uncritically Beck's claim that he has a serious and >> rare disease, which has been either cured or at least effectively treated >> by the Carrick Brain Center. From what I can tell, these "news" >> organizations did no original reporting, and simply transcribed what Beck >> said on his program. To the extent that this is a news story (and it likely >> is - Beck is a public figure) it seems that in the absence of some kind of >> documentation cnn and others should have reported this clearly as a report >> or claim made by Beck, not as an established fact. >> >> -- >> -- >> TV or Not TV .... 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