CBS Evening News Wakes Up to Find
Non-profit Gets Funding
Report criticizes National Sleep
Foundation for drug industry financing, but ignores backing for
Public Citizen, as well as its own advertisements.
By Dan Gainor [1]
March 30, 2005
CBC Evening News employed an obvious
double standard in its coverage of a new study indicating Americans
arent getting enough sleep. Rather than simply focus on the study,
reporter Sharyl Attkisson attacked the group that did the research
because it gets funding from the sleep industry.
According to Attkisson, the issue was Whether America's
sleepiness is a real epidemic or just a pipe dream of the drug
industry. She relied on comments from Consumer watchdog Dr.
Sidney Wolfe. Attkisson failed to mention that Wolfe is the Health
Research Group Director for Public Citizen, a left-wing advocacy
group that advocates for increased regulation, against tort reform
and produces a publication about House Majority Leader Tom DeLay
(R-Texas) that is called DeThrone DeLay.
Despite that obvious political bias, Attkisson never
asked Wolfe about his funding while using funding to undermine the
reliability of the National Sleep Foundation. But before you're
convinced that we've become a nation of walking zombies, you might
want to consider what we found when we checked into who funds the
National Sleep Foundation: companies that make - you guessed it -
sleeping pills and other insomnia remedies, she explained.
After interviewing Wolfe, Attkisson introduced Noted
sleep doctor Meir Kryger, a member of the foundations board of
directors. Does it hurt the credibility of the poll that the
foundation is heavily funded by the pharmaceutical industry? she
asked.
According to Attkisson, The national sleep foundation
wouldn't tell us how much money it actually gets from drug
companies, like the makers of Ambien. The report continued with a
small excerpt from the Ambien commercial. Viewers probably didnt
notice that commercial was actually part of the report since CBS
itself relies so heavily on support from the pharmaceutical
industry. In the same broadcast where they were criticizing drug
industry funding for the National Sleep Foundation, CBS ran
commercials for the drugs Nasonex, Lavitra, Singulair, Lamisil and
Vytorin. Other commercials highlighted traditional favorites such as
Advil and Mylanta.
While CBS Evening News rightly embraces the free
market approach for itself and welcomes pharmaceutical advertising,
apparently they don't want others to enjoy the same freedom.
ABCs World News Tonight showed a better way to go
after the story. After anchor Peter Jennings mentioned that this was
Sleep Awareness Week, he added, And we are told that the problem is
particularly acute with teenagers. Rather than attack the funding
for the foundation, reporter John McKenzie focused on the problem
with teens, including one Minneapolis school district that has made
start times later to help students get enough sleep. Researchers in
Minneapolis found that, with more sleep, there were fewer students
sleeping in classrooms and fewer mood swings, disciplinary problems
and school drop-outs, added McKenzie.