Nine Percent Approval Rating? US Network Television News FAILS "Big
Pharma"
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Opinion by Consumer Advocate Tim Bolen
Saturday, December 10th, 2005
In 1999 "Big Pharma" went to the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and got
permission to advertise drugs, drugs, and more drugs directly to the
American consumer. Their intent, as it became obvious, was two things: (1)
sell more drugs to the American consumer, and, (2) control the media,
especially US television..
TV network news, it appears, got the lion's share of advertising dollars. I
estimate that 55% percent of all advertising during the News Hours are paid
for by "Big Pharma." More, about a third of the entire newscast, itself, is
focused on how wonderful your "local drug peddler" actually is. Almost
every night a new wonder drug (snort) is presented, that will absolutely
save humanity - and, of course, this never actually happens.
Network TV news is just about ALL advertising hype - with the occasional
brainless "car chase - endlessly documented by the 3.5 million dollar
($3,500,000) network helicopter."
Television News departments have sold out for the money - there is no doubt
about that. Even more, the networks, beyond the news features, couldn't go
even part of a season without another boring TV series about life in a
hospital - without ever mentioning that those same hospitals are the number
one (#1) killer of Americans, ahead of heart disease and cancer.
Yes, US television has sold out to "Big Pharma." There is no doubt about
it. But, the question is "Did TV do 'Big Pharma' any good?" And the answer
is "no, it did not..." and, we can all laugh about that.
What do I mean "no, it did not..?"
There's an easy answer - in two parts:
To read the entire article, and access the interesting links, click on the
URL below:
www.bolenreport.net/
