alcohol

Claims of 1,800+ Deaths from Binge Drinking Is Wrong, WaPo Fact Checker Says

julia.seymour — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 20:51:05 +0000

Chronicle of Higher Education, PBS recently reported alcohol stat Post Fact Checker gives three Pinocchios.

Joseph Rossell

Media outlets and politicians often fall for junk science and misleading statistics. This happened recently with alcohol-related death statistics, which The Washington Post exposed as factually incorrect.

Washington Post Wonkblog Clarifies Outrageous Alcohol Stat

julia.seymour — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 15:44:23 +0000

Original article claims heaviest drinkers in U.S. consume more than 10 drinks per day.

Joseph Rossell

The Washington Post’s Wonkblog backpedalled slightly after being accused of making questionable claims about alcohol consumption patterns in the United States. Wonkblog published a second piece Oct. 3, clarifying the statistics from the Sept. 25, article.

CBS Hypes Misleading Government Alcohol Study

julia.seymour — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 19:53:45 +0000

Taxpayers pay for unnecessary study on alcohol-related fatalities.

Mike Ciandella

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) recently published a new report that not only misled, but was completely unnecessary. And CBS repeated it rather than criticize its irrelevancy.

The NIAAA study claimed that the number of alcohol related deaths has been vastly under-reported. However, this was misleading. A separate government agency NIAAA agrees with has been publishing the correct number of deaths for years, and media outlets have been using that correct data. So the new taxpayer study went looking for a problem that wasn’t there.

— Mike Ciandella is Research Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Mike Ciandella on Twitter.

CDC Funds Faulty Anti-Alcohol Study That Targets Budweiser

dan.gainor — Thu, 12 Sep 2013 14:59:53 +0000

Media misinterpret Hopkins analysis of tiny number of emergency patients.

Kristine Marsh

If you end up in the emergency room for a serious injury after a night out, it might be because you were drinking Budweiser.

Or at least that’s the claim of a questionable new study, conducted by The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Medical Health. Among emergency room patients with alcohol-related injuries, the most likely culprit of beers turned out to be the King of Beers, Budweiser.

USA Today Hypes Anti-Gun Study by Lefty Advocacy Group on Front Page

dan.gainor — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 19:27:20 +0000

New study by Soros-linked Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation claims ‘gun violence’ costs $12 billion every year.

Liz Thatcher

USA Today highlighted a study on gun violence, giving it top billing on its front page March 5. The headline read: “Gun Violence Annual Cost: $12 Billion.” But the USA Today story didn’t give any indication of the left-wing inclinations of the group behind that study.

NBCNews.com Hypes Danger of Moderate Drinking

julia.seymour — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 18:56:56 +0000

Promotes study linking alcohol to cancer deaths, but ignores critics of the science.

Mike Ciandella

Both NBCNews.com and CBS Boston recently touted study linking even 1.5 drinks a day, or less to certain types of cancer. That study has been criticized for “questionable assumptions,” but neither story pointed that out.

Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll … and More Sex

admin — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 04:00:00 +0000

Sarah Knoploh

Sex, alcohol, drugs, and profanity are easy to find: just turn on the radio. During the summer of 2009, the top 20 songs were full of such references. One hit song was even entitled “Birthday Sex.”

Popular singer Lady Gaga's single “Love Game” was all about her sexual desires. The music video was so provocative, perhaps because of lesbians kissing, that it was banned in Australia. Another popular song, “Best I Ever Had” featured “f***”19 separate times.

Life on the Straight Edge

admin — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 05:00:00 +0000

L. Brent Bozell III

The Hartford Courant recently reported on a somewhat shocking teenage contrast. Picture a band of boys calling themselves “Society in Ruins” playing thrash-metal music so loudly it would make your ears bleed. But the teen rockers also have committed themselves to what's called the “Straight Edge” lifestyle of no drugs and no alcohol during high school. Courant writer Teresa Pelham reported the teenage rockers don't have a formal pact, “just an understanding that there will be no pressure, at least from each other, to drink or try drugs.”

American Teens Heavily Involved in Sex, Alcohol, Drugs, Smoking

admin — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 04:00:00 +0000

Kristen Fyfe

Nearly half (48 percent) of high school students have had intercourse and 3.5 million people ages 12 to 20 meet the criteria for having an alcohol use disorder. Almost a quarter (23 percent) of high school students smoke.

CBS's Alfonsi Shakes Up Audience with Drinking Survey

admin — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 18:54:40 +0000

Ken Shepherd

In about the time it might take a seasoned bartender to whip up a Manhattan, New York-based reporter Sharyn Alfonsi concocted an intoxicating mix of hype and government statistics. Yet the CBS reporter left out some sobering details from her January 2 “Evening News” report about the main ingredients to her story, the sources she consulted for comment.

Reporting on a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study on binge drinking, Alfonsi began with a frightening story of teenage alcoholism.

NBC Plugs Liquor Wholesalers Study on Teenage Internet Booze Sales

admin — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 21:04:55 +0000

Ken Shepherd

NBC swallowed claims from a study that criticized online alcohol vendors, though very few teens actually buy liquor online. What’s more, Chief Consumer Correspondent Lea Thompson failed to include any critics who would argue the survey paid for by the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA) was biased in favor of its pro-regulation agenda.

AP Swallows anti-Alcohol Group's Findings on Alcohol and African-Americans

admin — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 14:44:50 +0000

Ken Shepherd

Print media ran results of an anti-alcohol group’s study that warned black children are exposed to more alcohol marketing than their white peers, but the report left out information which undermined the study.