Pharmaceutical advertising turns national newspapers into drug industry

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Pharmaceutical advertising turns national newspapers

into drug industry puppets

JoAnn Guest

Apr 02, 2005 09:42 PST

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http://www.newstarget.com/001482.html

 

A New York Times headline blares, " Health Officials Urge Sharply Lower

Cholesterol Levels, " and the article discusses all the reasons why more

and more people should be on statin drugs. Changes in diet, nutrition

and levels of physical exercise are utterly absent from the story,

leaving the reader with only one conclusion: statin drugs are the only

way to lower cholesterol.

 

To the right of the story, a giant tower banner ad demands, " Talk to

your doctor today! " Right above that giant quote, a large logo

advertises " Crestor, " a popular statin drug. The tower banner takes up

almost as much screen space as the article, and the message of the two

-- in combination -- is quite clear: everybody needs lower cholesterol,

and the only way to do that is to take Crestor.

 

 

 

This is the national media on drugs. Or, more accurately, the national

media addicted to the advertising dollars of pharmaceutical companies.

Even from national newspapers like the New York Times, we're no longer

getting balanced information about lowering cholesterol with diet and

exercise. Instead, we're getting one-track reporting: drugs, drugs and

more drugs. And just in case you missed the point, here's a giant banner

you can click that will give you even more pro-drug propaganda.

 

It's all a result of the FDA's decision regarding direct-to-consumer

advertising in 1998. Following that decision, drug companies were

allowed to run ads on television, in magazines and all over the web,

urging consumers to ask their doctors about drugs they might not even

need. The first result was to cause patients to barge into their

doctors' offices and demand drugs about which they had absolutely no

knowledge. Many doctors still shake their heads over the Claritin

campaigns which had patients demanding Claritin, even though they had no

clue what Claritin claimed to do.

 

But the bigger effect -- and far worse -- was that the national media

received a huge influx of marketing dollars from drug companies. In a

matter of a few months, formerly respectable magazines and newspapers

were transformed into pro-drug propaganda rags. And it didn't take long

for the editorial content to follow suit, because once a big advertiser

is pumping millions of dollars into a publication, it only takes one

phone call to shut down an anti-drug article and fire the reporter who

dared write it.

 

And that leads us to today, where we see a blatant example of this at

work in the New York Times. This newspaper is already steeped in one

ethics scandal after another, and it appears to me that with this

article in particular, they've lost any sense of journalistic

responsibility and sold out to the drug companies for dollars. In less

polite terms, this is called " media whoring, " and it means that the

publisher shapes their content in order to please advertisers. Hence the

utter lack of any mention of nutrition (see related ebook on nutrition)

and exercise as a way to counter high cholesterol in this particular

article.

 

The pharmaceutical companies know this, too: their dollars buy them

editorial influence. And they exercise it. Newspapers and magazines that

write about high cholesterol, but fail to mention statin drugs, are

simply denied advertising dollars. Meanwhile, publishers who hype up the

drugs with pro-drug headlines are rewarded with even more dollars.

 

And where do all these advertising dollars come from? From the

ridiculously high prescription drug prices, of course! Some prescription

drugs are marked up an astounding 500,000% from the cost of their raw

ingredients (that's not a typo), and a big chunk of that money goes

right back into the big propaganda machine (advertising and P.R.). Drug

companies claim they need those sky-high prices to invest in R & D, but in

reality, they spend far more on promotion than R & D. And they do that

because they're buying off the national press.

 

The U.S. press has largely sold out to the drug companies. That's why

you can't get trusted news about health from most popular news sources

anymore. You have to go to independent sites like this one. We don't

have a single ad rep, and we tell the truth about health, nutrition, and

pharmaceuticals, regardless of whose profit interests it serves.

Companies don't pay us to be listed here, either.

 

Here, we serve your interests, not the financial interests of some

mega-rich drug corporation. Too bad the same can't be said of many U.S.

newspaper publishers. Their media whoring is absolutely blatant. You

can't even honestly call their paper a " news " paper anymore. It's more

like an infomercial.

 

It's a great system for pushing drugs onto American consumers, though.

Most Americans will do what they're told, as long as the orders come

from a source like a national newspaper or cable news channel.

_________________

JoAnn Guest

mrsjo-

DietaryTi-

www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Genes

 

 

 

 

AIM Barleygreen

" Wisdom of the Past, Food of the Future "

 

http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Diets.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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