United Kingdom: Science Media Centre (including Fiona Fox)

So why bother with journalists at all then, why not just have the fake news coming straight from the horses mouth and landing in healthcare policy via the media?....oh....erm...hold on.....

 

Trigger warning...

 

I think I heard a good while back that much of 'journalism' now is not the real thing anyway. Financial constraints provoking a race to the bottom in terms of professionalism and quality, relying mostly on 3rd party sources without validating what they are regurgitating. Thankfully there are exceptions.

 

Like Jerome Burne for example.... https://jeromeburne.com/
Greetings


“Evidence based medicine” should, surely, mean all drugs have been rigorously tested. But after 20 years as a health journalist I’m still shocked at how evidence for harm can be hidden and evidence for benefit boosted.

We are all being encouraged to take more responsibility for our own health and many of us would like to use non-drug treatments and life-style changes as well. But gathering evidence that it works is more complicated. Even when it is there it can be ignored.

This is the place to check for cases where the evidence is lacking or has been fudged and to discuss what needs to be done to make it better............"

http://healthinsightuk.org/2016/09/...fraction-as-effective-as-experts-claim-it-is/

https://www.meassociation.org.uk/20...atients-still-at-war-over-m-e-15-august-2017/

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2002/mar/30/health.lifeandhealth

 

There is a dearth of investigative journalism in the UK. Panorama used to be an hour long, there was World in action? etc. The newspapers aren't any better. Hence we have SMC to give journalists sound bites.

 

Some good journo....... and I am aware Panorama journalists and producers are still interested......

M.E. and me | BBC Newsbeat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLPCuEdqIWY

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/archive/506549.stm -1999
https://www.meassociation.org.uk/2010/01/bbc-panorama-special-on-kay-gilderdale-case-next-monday-february-1/ -2010
https://www.meassociation.org.uk/20...o-4-file-on-4-children-with-m-e-27-june-2017/
https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/meinvestigation

 

Putin and his colleagues also provide expert comment on just about any governmental or political subject. “There are far less journalists nowadays, but with much more space to fill. By providing them with expert comment, we are giving it to them on a plate—but what they are getting is fair, balanced, journalism”, says Vladimir Putin.

 

They are working very hard for the pro-fracking side. They held a press briefing a week or so ago which produced a slew of articles pandering to the fracking companies.

http://www.sciencemediacentre.org/fracking-in-the-uk-what-does-the-evidence-say/

 

https://www.bristol.ac.uk/graduation/honorary-degrees/honorary-graduates-2019/fiona-fox/

That's pretty hilarious given Fox's role in Bristol's SMILE trial (and of course PACE, and the general smearing of CFS patients).

Adam Finn was one of the organisers of the conference that decided Crawley should speak on "Defending Medical Science in the Post-Truth Era":

https://www.s4me.info/threads/crawley-speaking-at-espid-sweden-2018.1753/

 

They are eroding the credibility of science.

 

I suppose that "Medial science" - science as portrayed in the media - is what she knows about . She seems to know damn all about medical science.

 

Sorry - had to go back and edit to destroy your joke. I'm so bad!

 

Reading that title made me feel gross.

 

You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours.

 

It's officially give awards to your mates season again!

 

"But some people woke up to the importance of improving the quality and accuracy of information reaching the public a long time ago – and one of them was Fiona Fox."

Indeed she did, especially the importance of stifling it, where specific interests are concerned.

 

I think this is more than just ego, but social engineering calculation. The more establishment accolades and baubles they can accrue, the greater access it gives them to the people they seek to influence, and the greater supposed credibility with which to do it. It's all about cause and effect, and to hell with right/wrong, truth/untruth, etc.

 

Ugh, where's a finger-down-the-throat emoji when you need one? A non-scientist media person awarded an honorary science degree for being in with the in-crowd in a little echo chamber where everyone gives each other continual awards and accolades, while not giving a damn about science. Just.....ugh.