undefined | Better HN

0 pointscwkoss2y ago0 comments

It's entirely on the poor journalism. It's not WHO's job (nor is it possible) for them to ensure every global publication regurgitates their press releases accurately.

I mean, sure, you can distrust WHO if you want because of this, but seems kind of a silly reason.

0 comments

5 comments · 3 top-level

tsimionescu2y ago· 2 in thread

> It's not WHO's job (nor is it possible) for them to ensure every global publication regurgitates their press releases accurately.

But the whole purpose of a press release is to communicate accurately with the press. The WHO, being a global organization, is also very much supposed to work with the press globally.

Not to mention, the aspartame story was not coming out of some small paper from Trinidad, it was coming out of major publications in the USA. If the WHO can't even manage to communicate properly to them in its press releases, why bother putting out press releases at all?

cwkossOP2y ago

The USA is probably the global capital of media sensationalism.

There are plenty of Americans who were properly able to parse the WHO press release. Our corporate media doesn't hire them because they choose more eyeballs with strong emotional reactions (to sell to advertisers) over a well informed audience.

It's naive to think WHO could have crafted the release in a way that US major networks would have reported on it responsibly.

tsimionescu2y ago

No, it's not naive to think they could have done that. The right press release should have been "no risk of cancer from aspartame as best we can determine. We will continue to fund some research in this area to eliminate any possible doubt."

Affric2y ago

The comment you're replying to is rather hyperbolic but your succinct comment is thought provoking in both sentences:

1. What is success in public health communication for the WHO? An organisation that operates globally, in many languages, at all levels of economic development, and no mechanism of generating its own revenue?

2. If you believe the WHO to have lost all credibility which group of public health experts could you consider credible?

callalex2y ago

Presentation of medical studies surrounding aspartame (one of the most heavily studied foods in human history) are a perfect canary to determine if an organization cares about scientific accuracy, or appearing in headlines.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse