Why I Hate the Press by Trudi M.

The saying goes that someone who thinks they know everything is irritating to those of us who do. I guess that is why I hate the press.

For those of you who may not know this, my job entails me serving as a quasi-expert on health policy. I supposedly try to scout out information for state officials on trends and innovations in health care that can help them do their job better. Well, I don't know everything and I always put "expert" in quotes because there is a whole heck of a lot I don't know about health care.

But one thing I have learned from my studies of this mammoth field is that the press often get stories completely wrong about health care. Now I know this because it is my job to know this field in a more specialized way than most reporters. And I can tell you that if you are getting your general impressions about health care from the press then you probably have a completely skewed vision of how health care really works. From press accounts one would think that our doctors are being paid by health plans to deny us care because all the plans care about is money. The only exception is when the drug company pays the doctors off to prescribe us drugs we don't need or that kill us and they know it and are trying to cover it up because they just want to make money.

And we often swallow this crap. BUT STOP RIGHT THERE. Do we ever stop to think about the hidden agenda of most reporters and editors in feeding us this crap? The hidden agenda is that they want to sell us papers, have us watch their show and gain market share. Unfortunately rosy news does not sell papers, sensationalism does.

Now in my observation, 3 out of 5 news stories on health care really do not paint an accurate picture of the real issues. So, extrapolate the sensationalist coverage of health care issues across all different areas of public affairs and I think you will come to the same sinking conclusion I have about most news. It is mostly overblown sensationalism, whether done by the National Enquirer or by CBS. Rather-gate was a rare gaffe that exposed the often seamy underside of journalism - reporters and editors want to sell papers and producers want to get you to watch their show. So they will often create fires where there are none and then blame everyone else when the house burns down.

One recent example of this is Vioxx. There is good evidence that this drug taken at high doses increases the risk of heart attacks and one estimate is that as many as 100,000 people may have died prematurely as a result. Now this is really important to get the word out about this risk. However, what is not being talked about in many cases is that one of the major reasons these drugs are prescribed to people with arthritis is because long-term use of other pain relievers such as naproxen and ibuprofen can cause severe damage to the stomach. So much so that some people's stomachs develop ulcers and some even bleed to death because of this damage. Every drug like Vioxx has risks. Doctors and pharmacists and others have to weigh the risk of heart damage occurring against risk of stomach damage and the quality of life issues for, say, a 76 year old woman with severe arthritis. HEart damage may occur in 12 years but if she doesn't take a medication like Vioxx or Celebrex then she could be disabled by arthritis pain or develop a severe stomach ulcer and die in 5 years. What is worse? These kinds of scenarios are not being talked about at all in the press. And as a result, a lot of people are going to stop taking or not have access to medications they need.

I could go on and on about various media stories related to health care that are just wrong headed in their approach. I will just have to say - trust me - the media often do not get their facts right and often miss the boat in truly informing the public. I am glad that bloggers have started to help the public see through the major media's new clothes. At least there are alternatives now to the major media. Long live weblogs!!