Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Don Barlett told the Association of Health Care Journalists conference, “Wall Street has higher standard of ethics than the health care industry but you wouldn’t know it from reading newspapers.”
Barlett praised the level of investigative journalism today while emphasizing that the “once-or-twice-a-year-story doesn’t make up for the daily drumbeat of stories. Health care reporting in this country is a disgrace day in and day out. The daily drumbeat is a disgrace.”
Barlett says “What’s missing in health care stories is context.” Such as what he called the “incredible boondoggle of cancer research in the past 50 years,” accompanied by endless media claims of cures and breakthroughs. He cited a 1938 journal article that proclaimed that a cancer cure was near.
“We in this business are lying to our readers. Just because someone has MD after their name doesn’t mean they’re honest,” Barlett said.
“I’m concerned about the impact of advertising in newspapers. Do I have evidence? No. My evidence is in the stories I don’t see.”