American Journalists Cover Medicine
Don' t trust what you read in the news media. In PLoS Medicine Gary Schwitzer reviews 500 stories published by major media. Among his conclusions were that:
The daily delivery of news stories about new treatments, tests, products, and procedures may have a profound—and perhaps harmful—impact on health care consumers.
That journalists usually fail to discuss costs, the quality of the evidence, the existence of alternative options, and the absolute magnitude of potential benefits and harms.
As a result even careful reading of news stories, without examining the source of the data may be harmful to readers, and those they care for. The internet will usually provide links to the original research where the reader can look for the quality of the data.