The Tenuous Grip Of Big Pharma

Jan 4th, 2012

The cozy and ethically dubious relationships between pharmaceutical concerns and professionals acting as their agents is under pressure. ProPublica reports:

"Some of the nation's top medical schools cracked down on professors who give paid promotional talks for drugmakers last year, and the firms themselves cut back on such spending in the wake of mounting scrutiny.

Last year began with the University of Colorado Denver and its affiliated teaching hospitals launching an overhaul of conflict-of-interest policies after ProPublica found that more than a dozen of its faculty members had given paid promotional talks.

"We're going to just have to say we're not going to be involved with these speakers bureaus because they're primarily marketing," Dr. Richard Krugman, vice chancellor for health affairs, said in an interview in January 2011.

A few months later, Stanford University took disciplinary action against five faculty members identified by ProPublica who had taken money to deliver drug company speeches, a violation of university policy.

And by last fall, there were indications that pharmaceutical companies were also reducing the money they spent on doctor speakers."

The full article is recommended.

Blogger "Not A Journalist"?

Dec 9th, 2011
by F. Grey Parker

The citizen journalist is an increasingly accepted component of the news cycle in our world. Small groups or single individuals, often without traditional financial backing and with only the internet as a medium, have had a tremendous impact on our awareness and understanding of events.

Sometimes, these independent reporters are essential. This has been the case with the coverage of ongoing atrocities in Syria. Other examples are certainly less urgent. Some are even infuriating (think James O'Keefe). But, this all journalism.

As a blogger who has occasionally used an anonymous source or two, a recent legal decision from Oregon sends a chill down my spine. AP reports:

"A federal judge in Oregon has ruled that a Montana woman sued for defamation was not a journalist when she posted online that an Oregon lawyer acted criminally during a bankruptcy case, a decision with implications for bloggers around the country."

A Healthy Reminder...

August 6th, 2011

...for bloggers such as myself to maintain some basic standards.

La Cucaracha by Lalo Alcaraz via