Who Is Really Behind Your Health News?

It's official. Video news releases are now contaminating health news as well.

VNRs (also called "fake news spots" and no, we're not referring to Comedy Central's news spoofs) are pre-packaged videos that are made to look and sound like a television station's own news spots but that have been produced entirely by outside organizations like PR agencies, non-profit groups and other institutions.

Trudy Lieberman takes an in-depth look at some fake news spots that are being produced by the Cleveland Clinic, of all places, for local television stations across the U.S. The hospital boasts a brand new broadcast studio that employs a handful of journalists as part of its Cleveland Clinic News Service.

Now mind you, the Cleveland Clinic's reputation is sterling but that's not the point. These video spots provide a dollop of news in a very sophisticated advertising wrapper.

As Lieberman writes in the Columbia Journalism Review:

. . . Cleveland Clinic News Service stories almost always feature Cleveland Clinic doctors and patients touting some new surgical technique or medical breakthrough, like anti-aging proteins or a new sensor to measure spinal disc damage, or sometimes offering basic health tips, like flu shots or exercise. Stories occasionally mention research from another institution or a medical journal, but never a doctor from a rival hospital in Cleveland. . .

Real health reporting is expensive and lots of traditional news organizations are pulling back from it. (The same holds true for international news.) There's no question we're going to have to figure out new ways of financing news coverage. But VNRs are not the answer.

In the interests of transparency, these particular video spots should be more clearly labelled as promotion from the Cleveland Clinic.

And in case you're wondering about The Health Media Watch. No one's paying me to write this blog. It's a labor of love based on my 20-plus years covering health and medical topics. (And yes, I realize that's not a sustainable business model.)