Four-fifths of network stories on drugs exclude industry view

Four-fifths of stories on CBS, ABC and NBC about drugs fail to include the viewpoint of the pharmaceutical industry, according to a report from the Business & Media Institute.

The Institute looked at 132 stories on prescription or over-the-counter drugs from the ABC, CBS, and NBC evening newscasts between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30, 2006. Among the findings:

Industry Ignored: While covering everything from medical ‘controversies’ to breakthroughs, nearly 80 percent of the stories excluded the viewpoint of the pharmaceutical industry, failing to include either a company statement or a company spokesman.

Media Overemphasize Cost to Consumer: The broadcast networks mentioned costs to consumers or drug company revenues 11 times more often than they mentioned drug development costs.

Networks Leave Companies Unnoticed: Only 22 percent of the stories even named the company that developed the drug or drugs featured in the story.

What Development Costs?: A mere 2 percent of stories dealt with the cost of developing drugs, and even those costs were downplayed by industry skeptics.

Special Treatment for Left-Wing Causes: Nineteen stories focused on drugs that were popular liberal causes such as the morning-after pill or HPV vaccine Gardasil. The networks didn’t apply the same scrutiny to those drugs and their makers as they did to others.

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