Monday, January 21, 2008

Non news is ? news?

This 24/7 news culture and its thirst for any bit of PR to fill its column inches and/or airwaves is getting beyond a joke.

As the father of two, whose on-smoking wife was/is teetotal but not averse to a cup of coffee or two, one has to wonder what next half-a*ed bit of maybe research will get trotted out, with varying experts saying it's anything from a disaster to no problem.

How we can have the threat of miscarriage on two cups go out in the same slot as a Doctor saying 'a moderate amount is ok' beats me. Is coffee (plus chocolate and colas) a baby killer or not? Trying to pin it down seems simply daft science and serves no one.

The net result is that the media spews out everything and ends up saying nothing. Which means we (well, I) just get unnecessarily disconcerted... and then do sod all about it.

As with most eco-pronouncements, it is a vain hope that the media could resist waiting until there is a definitive peer-reviewed conclusion, with coherent advice attached.

Fat chance. Oh, but speaking of fat...

1 comment:

Dave said...

It does seem strange that places like Holland & Belgium, where strong coffee is consumed in huge amounts in comparison to the UK, have no apparent higher rates of miscarriage than we do here in the UK.

As you say, sometimes the media would be much better off waiting until fully peer reviewed and repeat research, showing the same results, was published, but by then it wouldn't be newsworthy.