Ben Goldacre on science and media

The people best at corporate PR play much better in the mainstream media than people who are doing something for real. The PR people are willing to distort their methods to make things more media-friendly.

There are people trying to do serious work addressing health inequality – but they don’t get in newspapers. What you get in the media is people who claim to be providing medicine but who are really selling sugar pills or vitamins.

It’s cynical. But it’s also lazy on the part of those people who give them a platform.

(via Instapaper)