healthy eating

Rodale, publisher of Prevention, Men’s Health and Women’s Health, wants to “make it simple” for readers: “The news can be confusing and contradictory. ... We take the confusion out of understanding your health [and] your environment. And we add a level of common sense and moderation that has been sadly lacking in the current sensation-seeking news landscape.”

Readers should expect only the best journalism from the Washington Post, a Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper; and Slate.com, a recipient of the prestigious National Magazine Award for General Excellence. Or, at the very least, they should expect clear, accurate and reliable reporting.   Yet that’s not what they’re getting.

So, we noticed some changes in the offending Washington Post report and reached out to the Ombudsman again with some of our on going concerns. Here's the latest:November 27, 2012 Mr.Patrick Pexton Ombudsman Washington Post   Dear Mr. Pexton

It’s not clear how anyone actually becomes a celebrity fitness guru. There are no classes to attend or tests to pass that we can find. So any advice you hear from a celebrity fitness guru is best kept in the same category as a National Enquirer headline: Interesting, but Don’t Bet Your Life On It. Case in point: “renowned fitness and nutrition expert” Harley Pasternak’s advice on eating fish.

Carolyn Butler’s article in The Washington Post, “Eating fish is wise, but it’s good to know where your seafood comes from,” takes good news about the health benefits of eating seafood and buries it under a cascade of frightening precautionary warnings.

A recent example of irresponsible and lazy journalism illustrates why science and health reporters need to be held to a higher standard.

A recent example of irresponsible and lazy journalism illustrates why science and health reporters need to be held to a higher standard.

It doesn’t surprise me anymore when people get information about seafood wrong and tuna in particular. But it does surprise me just how wrong they get it.Let’s take for instance Andrew Freeman on TakePart, he’s an apparent expert on nutrition whose degree in history from UCLA and recent posts on prison overcrowding and a house in the UK made entirely of waste seem to back that credential up.

NBC has changed the headline-- 

If you’re ever in Ms. Gordon’s Catskills neighborhood when the power goes out, knock on her neighbor’s door. Rather than use mass care authorities like the Red Cross to craft her survival tips (published in the Huffington Post), she relies on the National Resource Defense Council’s (NRDC) “Preparing for Disaster” checklist.