Journalism Under Bush's Off-The-Record Briefing Ground Rules

Open post to Brian Williams of NBC News:

In response to this from your Daily Nightly blog, in which you wrote

A number of television journalists gathered for lunch with the president at the White House today -- a practice becoming more and more common when this president has a major speech to deliver. The following is a review of my notes, and is offered here under the ground rules established by the assembled White House senior aides. Vice President Cheney attended but did not speak.

I realize that you don't publish my comments, pointed and critical as they are, but I hope that you are at least reading and considering them in the spirit in which they are offered.

Journalists are considered the 4th estate. To that end, the public relies on you (the plural you) to be assertive in pursuing clear, accurate and comprehensive information from reliable sources, and that you perform adequate fact-checking. Moreover, the public expects you to refrain from editorializing to the extent that is possible for educated humans to accomplish.

That translates into questioning and protesting such intolerable conditions as the "ground rules" that the White House is mandating for off-the-record briefings.

We, the people, supposedly elect those occupants of that branch, and we have full rights to know what the president and his cabinet (and whatever the heck the VP is calling his position in the branches these days) are doing, what his plans are, what his rationale is, what resources he is actually using, who his advisers are, etc.

It is not acceptable for NBC News, a la Tim Russert's court testimony, to assert that everything is assumed to be off the record as baseline, and that only when express permission is obtained, that sources are revealed.

To be blunt, that is un-American.

We now live in a topsy Orwellian world of doublespeak.

I am no politico, no genius and no one of import. But I highly recommend that you reacquaint yourself with Orwell's 1984 and Sinclair Lewis' It Can't Happen Here. Read some Morrow. Read some 1930's history.

Speak with your international print and television news colleagues. Try to step outside the US media market and look at it from a global point of view.

It's frightening. And you, your counterparts at ABC and CBS, and the anchors of the political commentary cable "news" shows are not meeting the public need.

What would be a good start?

In the transcripts, include the citations for all presented facts and sources.

In the NBC News Division, include professional CVs for all anchors, reporters, correspondents and news writers and researchers. Tell us your academic credentials, your professional experience, and even jobs held in other industries to help us understand your perspective.

Most important, provide full disclosure for any and all relationships between you and your subjects.

If you're still reading, I thank you!

Please consider hosting reader/blogger fora. Having Chris Colvin present her blog round-up twice weekly is a real treat, and she's first rate, but that's just a start.

It would be very interesting to have a working forum with key bloggers and NBC News staff to develop working relationships and to create some synergistic effects.

Not for "nuthin'" - it might be useful to get a better handle on the demographics of bloggers - especially those in the political blogosphere. My guess is that's where your market share growth is, but only if you learn how to tap in to the blogging fire hose.

Thanks for reading. I'm always open to criticism, too, and please don't hesitate to provide it. *g*

Health News Roundup

I'm still making this up as I go along. Today's focus is on finding some of the gems about healthcare and health policy that you can subscribe to via email. These are typically daily reports with excerpts and kinks to primary health and policy resources. They are deeply referenced, cited transparently, and they have a high degree of reliability and validity.

Feedback makes me all warm and fuzzy - and it makes the quality and focus better for you, dear reader. Please let me know what you think, what you would like to read, and what stories and issues you're interested in reading about. Here's your cup to sip from the health fire hose. *g*

Health References About Public Health And Pandemic Influenza

The Flu Wiki

The purpose of the Flu Wiki is to help local communities prepare for and perhaps cope with a possible influenza pandemic. This is a task previously ceded to local, state and national governmental public health agencies. Our goal is to be:

* a reliable source of information, as neutral as possible, about important facts useful for a public health approach to pandemic influenza
* a venue for anticipating the vast range of problems that may arise if a pandemic does occur
* a venue for thinking about implementable solutions to foreseeable problems

No one, in any health department or government agency, knows all the things needed to cope with an influenza pandemic. But it is likely someone knows something about some aspect of each of them and if we can pool and share our knowledge we can advance preparation for and the ability to cope with events. This is not meant to be a substitute for planning, preparation and implementation by civil authorities, but a parallel effort that complements, supports and extends those efforts.

While we will continue to administer and maintain the Wiki, we are turning the wheel over to the community, to take it where the road leads us.

Influenza Pandemic Preparation and Response: A Citizen’s Guide v.1.3 (PDF)

Use Doctrine
This manual is meant to be a guide for many citizens in its present form, but we
encourage individuals, communities, and organizations to revise and adapt it to their
individual needs and cultures and to translate it into other languages. We ask that
such revisions reference the original document and remain in the public domain.
Revisions should be posted on fluwikie.com so that those derivates will be widely
available. To check for current updates to this manual, please visit
http://www.fluwikie.com/pmwiki.php?n=Consequences.VersionHistory
Corrections and Additional Acknowledgments
If you wish to correct an error in this manual or if you find material for which the
original author or source is not properly acknowledged (an increasingly common
and unavoidable problem in the age of multiple postings and of extracts that do not
retain identification of the original source) please document your concern and email
it to PandemicPrepAndResponse@gmail.com.

Reuters Humanitarian Crisis Alerts

Want to know about flu in Fiji or cholera in Colombia? Easy and fast search functions to find crisis, locations, severity and statistics.

AHRQ Public Health and Pandemic Flu Information, News and Guides

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's research in public health emergency preparedness is an outgrowth of its mission to develop evidence-based information to improve the quality of the U.S. health care system. This is critical to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services developing programs to combat bioterrorism and other public health emergencies such as pandemic flu.

To help communities prepare for a flu pandemic and other emergencies, AHRQ offers these tools from its Bioterrorism and Emergency Preparedness Program.

Health Policy Subscriptions

Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report

Add Daily Reports via RSS

Kaisernetwork.org provides four daily online reports -- summaries of news stories with links to the original articles and a fully searchable archive. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, the Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, the Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report and the Kaiser Health Disparities Report keep you in touch with legislative, political, legal, scientific, and business developments in each area. Issues include Medicare reform, Medicaid, patients' rights, access, the uninsured, minority health, children's health and health care advertising.

Kaiser First Edition, available each weekday morning at 8:30, provides headlines and links to the day's top stories and events.

You may also be interested in GlobalHealthReporting.org's Weekly TB/Malaria Report, which provides summaries of malaria and tuberculosis news stories, containing links to original articles and related resources.

Email DailyReports@kaisernetwork.org with story submissions and press releases.

Enhanced Search: Based on user feedback, we have improved the Daily Reports Search so you can more effectively search by date, sort by date or relevance, narrow your search results and more.

This is my favorite. The reportage is fast, timely, heavily referenced and fairly comprehensive.

Fierce Healthcare is a proprietary daily newsletter that is also referenced well, has a fairly comprehensive approach to issues coverage, and leans heavily toward promoting healthcare IT issues, in which it has a business interest.

AHRQ Patient Safety Network

AHRQ Patient Safety Network (PSNet) is a new national web-based resource featuring the latest news and essential resources on patient safety. The site offers weekly updates of patient safety literature, news, tools, and meetings ("What’s New"), and a vast set of carefully annotated links to important research and other information on patient safety ("The Collection"). Supported by a robust patient safety taxonomy and web architecture, AHRQ PSNet provides powerful searching and browsing capability, as well as the ability for diverse users to customize the site around their interests (My PSNet). It also is tightly coupled with AHRQ WebM&M, the popular monthly journal that features user-submitted cases of medical errors, expert commentaries, and perspectives on patient safety. AHRQ PSNet and AHRQ WebM&M are both funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and edited by a team at the University of California, San Francisco, with the technical support of Silverchair.

Subscribe here.


Today's Health News

Health Insurance Gaps Keep Would-Be Retirees Working

The number of Americans between 65 and 74 who are still working has jumped sharply, from 19.6% in 2000 to 23.2% last year, the Census Bureau said today. This morning’s Washington Post suggests several reasons for the jump, but one caught the Health Blog’s eye: Cuts in retiree health benefits have pushed employees to work longer to save on health care costs.

“People are simply hanging on to their job as a way to hang on to their income and to their health insurance so they can supplement their Medicare coverage,” Christian Weller, a University of Massachusetts professor and a senior fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress, told the paper.

Health Savings Accounts Aren't Catching On

A closely watched survey of employer-sponsored health insurance released today is getting attention for finding a 6% rise in premiums this year.

That headline number is climbing faster than inflation, though still below the double-digit increases of a few years back.

But the Health Blog was interested in a nugget buried inside the results. High-deductible insurance plans tied to special savings accounts continue to lag behind expectations, despite being praised high and low as a tool to slow the rise in health-care costs.

The Wall Street Journal is always looking for the free market, employer-focused angle.

Here's the New York Times' take on the same report:

Cost of Health Insurance Rises Again, but at a Slightly Slower Rate

The cost of employer-sponsored health insurance premiums has increased 6.1 percent this year, well ahead of wage trends and consumer price inflation, but below the 7.7 percent increase in 2006, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported yesterday.

Because doctor and hospital costs continue to rise at an even faster rate, the modest slowdown in insurance inflation mainly reflects cutbacks in coverage by many health plans, which have found ways to make employees pay more for their care. Industry experts said that without those measures, premium costs would have risen by 9 percent or more.

The total average annual cost for family coverage premiums rose this year to $12,106.

“For that kind of money, you could buy a compact car every year,” said Drew Altman, president of the Kaiser Foundation, a nonprofit group that produces the widely watched annual survey. He noted that health costs had increased 78 percent since 2001, more than four times the pace of prices and wages.

The 2007 increase was the smallest annual rise since 1999, when health premiums jumped 5.3 percent.

When the cupboard is bare, there isn't anything left over to put into HSAs (healthcare savings accounts).

That's a wrap for today. Your doses of flu references, email health news subscriptions and individuals' healthcare insurance costs will keep you wise to the latest in prevention and self-preservation.

Health News Roundup

{Crossposted at DocuDharma. Permission to use noncommercially with attribution.}

I thought I'd create a little links fest for those who would like to sip from the firehose that is health and healthcare. 

This post is for novice readers and features some core and must-have reference links.

Since I'm a two a day essayist, and I already used one of my daily offerings, I'll add the links for the major highlights of today at the bottom.  If you like what you read, or if you would enjoy something different, please let me know in the comments, and I'll adjust accordingly.

Health Policy Links

Kaiser Network Health08.org

Excellent website with RSS feeds, links and stories about politics intersecting with healthcare.  All of the presidential candidates' stances on healthcare are included in table format.

The Commonwealth Fund

The Commonwealth Fund is a private foundation that aims to promote a high performing health care system that achieves better access, improved quality, and greater efficiency, particularly for society's most vulnerable, including low-income people, the uninsured, minority Americans, young children, and elderly adults.

The Fund carries out this mandate by supporting independent research on health care issues and making grants to improve health care practice and policy. An international program in health policy is designed to stimulate innovative policies and practices in the United States and other industrialized countries.

Health Affairs Blog

After twenty-five years as a non-profit, bimonthly print journal and six years in online publishing, Health Affairs has entered the blogosphere as a new means of engaging readers in the health policy debate. The journal is all about an ongoing dialogue on health policy issues of concern to a diverse audience of interested readers. Read more from Health Affairs' founding editor John Iglehart on why the journal has started a blog.

What will the blog include?

Health Affairs plans to experiment with the blog. Some posts (short, invited commentary) will be clustered around a hot topic. Some will be one-time postings on news items of interest. Linking and interactivity will be key. Our goal is to offer a range of views, not to push a particular agenda.

The main elements will include:

  * invited posts from leading policy analysts;
  * responses from a variety of health care stakeholders;
  * comments welcome from all readers;
  * links to timely information both within Health Affairs and from other sources;
  * staff-written posts on policy briefings, new reports, hot policy topics

Institute of Medicine

The nation turns to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies for science-based advice on matters of biomedical science, medicine, and health. A nonprofit organization specifically created for this purpose as well as an honorific membership organization, the IOM was chartered in 1970 as a component of the National Academy of Sciences.

The Institute provides a vital service by working outside the framework of government to ensure scientifically informed analysis and independent guidance. The IOM's mission is to serve as adviser to the nation to improve health. The Institute provides unbiased, evidence-based, and authoritative information and advice concerning health and science policy to policy-makers, professionals, leaders in every sector of society, and the public at large.

Health News Links

Highlight Health blog

Highlight HEALTH serves as an information medium to provide knowledge and understanding of dietary supplements, nutrition and health news. We evaluate scientific information, disseminate research results and educate readers who are seeking better health to promote an enhanced quality of life.

PhysOrg.com

This is a don't miss site which lists breaking stories from the science, health and tech fields.  Best to subscribe from a reader as the content flows fast and furious, and almost always ahead of everyone else.

PogoWasRight.org blog

Privacy news, discussions, and resources.

The Pump Handle blog

The Pump Handle is a place for people interested in public health and the environment to discuss the issues that interest us, particularly when they're not getting the treatment we think they deserve in the mainstream media.

The story of the pump handle is familiar to any first-semester public health student: During the London cholera epidemic of 1854, John Snow examined maps of cholera cases and traced the disease to water from a local pump. At the time, the prevailing theory held that cholera spread through the air, rather than water, so Snow faced criticism from others in the science community - not to mention resistance from the water companies. He finally convinced community leaders to remove the pump's handle to prevent further exposure.

More than a century later, thousands of people still die from cholera each year, and providing clean drinking water to the world's entire population is a far-off goal. The Pump Handle symbolizes both a public health victory and the challenges facing the public health and environmental fields today.

Most of this blog's founding members are epidemiologists from the US, and we'd like to bring in writers from other disciplines and places.

Today's Health News Links

Compensation for 9/11 Rescue, Recovery, and Cleanup Workers

It is time for Congress to enlist the nation's science and policy experts to help develop a federal workers' compensation program for 9/11 rescue, recovery, and cleanup workers. The inadequacy of state worker programs led Congress to legislate special compensation programs for uranium miners, and civilian workers in nuclear weapons facilities. We did not require the families of those killed in the terrorist attacks to rely on state workers' compensation programs. The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (pdf) provided more than $7 billion to families of the victims. 

Wall Street Journal Health Blog Renewed Calls for Better Care for 9/11 Responders

"To think we're indebted to their efforts but we're really not doing enough to deal with their health concerns and their health impacts, it's really a sad commentary," New Jersey Democrat Frank Pallone said yesterday, the Associated Press reported.

The ailments common among those close to the site after the attack include post-traumatic stress, gastrointestinal illnesses and a range of respiratory conditions, such as asthma.

Pallone is part of a bipartisan group on Capitol Hill that recently wrote to administration officials asking for more information about plans to continue funding health care for responders and others. He'll chair a hearing on the subject next week.

And a few days ago, three New York congressmen (Democrats Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler, and Republican Vito Fossella) said they will introduce a bill that would establish a federal program that among other things would guarantee monitoring and care for residents, area workers and school children, in addition to those who worked and volunteered at ground zero.

Last, but in the theme of the last shall be first, please pay attention to this.  The HHS has been using progressives most recently by hosting a phony blog about pandemic flu planning.  Its chief shill, Dr. John Agwunobi, went from blogging false information about flu pandemic planning to jumping ship and going directly to Wal-Mart as its director of health and wellness.  A true Orwellian use of the term.. The AMA should be looking very sharply at a physician who is shilling for Republicans and spouting misinformation. There's a word for that - malpractice.

Hard Time on the HIPAA Front

It's been a week of bad news for lazy or sloppy health care organizations. An employee fired after a security breach of protected health information filed a wrongful termination suit against his former employer, and it may have merit because of poor policies. A community health care provider hacked by a disgruntled employee may be dragged into a compliance quagmire because it's not clear that the organization took basic steps to revoke his access. And to top it off, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is starting to swing the enforcement rule -- a dowdy part of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) that few people read -- like a scythe in a field of weedy policies and overgrown practices.

GAO Report Reveals Serious Shortcomings in National Strategy to Counter Pandemic Influenza

Chairman Waxman, along with Rep. Tom Davis, Rep. Bennie Thompson, and Sen. Judd Gregg, release a new GAO report revealing serious shortcomings in the nation's pandemic preparedness.

The report urges a clearer definition of the federal government's role, promotes interagency cooperation, and advises the development of a coherent national strategy to deal with pandemic influenza. The lawmakers call on the Administration to address the problems identified in the GAO analysis.

That's the link patrol for today.  Too much?  Not enough?  Just right?

Take the temperature and let me know the diagnosis.