More Fake News from Big Pharma

Pharmaceutical makers have created fake news segments and given them to local TV stations to air as news programming. Such fake stories under their deceptive news-like camouflage are part of a marketing strategy aimed an unsuspecting consumers. The segments could begin airing in major markets this summer but are drawing intense criticism from journalists and Dr. Sidney Wolfe, the director of Public Citizen’s Health Research groups. As he puts it, “Viewers will undoubtedly be deceived into believing this content is a product of the normal news process, which is supposed to be objective and non-biased- not driven by an economic agenda or marketing considerations.” From 1998 to 2003 there has been an 85 percent decrease in the FDA enforcement actions against prescription drug advertising. Therefore, since the FDA is no longer regulating closely to see whether drug companies are violating advertising restrictions for medicines, the question is whether or not they will monitor such pseudo news stories in MediZine’s and on television. For more info, visit http://www.projectcensored.org