“New research finds egregious errors in the reporting of medical studies.”
Britt Peterson in Seed Magazine:
Watched the nightly local newscast much in the past few years? Perhaps you’ve heard that lemon juice can be used as a substitute for HIV medications, or that exercise can actually cause cancer. If your child has something caught in his throat, doctors recommend that you shove your fingers down their gullet to get it out. Oh, and be very sure not to perform self-examinations for breast cancer—unless you want to, in which case, doctors say: Go right ahead.
According to a study in the March issue of the American Journal of Managed Care, these often flat-out wrong and occasionally harmful stories were all broadcast under the guise of scientific fact on local television news programs.
More here. And for other dangerous effects of local news, see also Robin Varghese’s take here.
