Hanging a 'For Sale' sign on the health news

image courtesy Paul Cleghorn

I used to work in local TV, and I know the pressures on today's local stations. You've got the advertisers clamoring for favorable stories, the business office pushing to cut staff, the staff complaining because there isn't any budget to repair their outdated equipment ... and oh yeah, the Internet stealing the audience.

In that environment, it might be easy to succumb to the temptation to sell out. So I could understand what tempted a station in Wisconsin to make a deal selling the health portion of its newscast to a local hospital. Instead of reporting news to meet their audience's needs, the station committed to featuring one hospital's doctors, programs and facilities, and eliminate all mention of that hospital's competitors. The sellout prompted the station's news director, Glenn Mabie, to quit in protest.

Unfortunately, there aren't many Glenn Mabies in this world, and far too many stations are selling out their health reports. The thing is, audiences aren't stupid. They know the difference between news and puff pieces. And increasingly, they're getting their health information online. That's one reason I'm not in TV anymore -- and one reason I'm proud to be the editor of OrganizedWisdom, a reliable health resource.