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To provide general feedback about the Media Doctor website, please leave your comments below. If you wish to provide feedback relating to a specific article, please use the comments section located on that article's page.

  • All comments and feedback submitted to Media Doctor are subject to editorial approval before being made viewable by the public. It may take up to a week for your comments to be approved. Additionally, no response will be given to questions posed in public comments. Media Doctor does not provide medical advice, or answers to medical questions posed by the public.
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  • Comments may be edited by Media Doctor to remove defamatory or sensitive statements, and brand names.
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site feedback

(16 Apr 2022) DM writes,

"Love this site!
When are you going to provide an RSS feed?
dm"

Media Doctor response,

"Thank you for your comment. We are currently exploring the option of providing an RSS feed and will post this option on the site if it becomes available."
(19 Mar 2022) James writes,

"Just found your site through The Tyee, and I believe you are providing a great resource.

Media stories are generally sound bite oriented generalizations, and I really appreciate the analysis and deconstruction of the articles.

It allows a layperson (to whom the original article was aimed at, ironically) to determine how much weight a story should have.

Great work, and keep it up! We definitely appreciate it.

I should also mention, I'll be forwarding links to your site anytime I receive a 'helpful' health related email from someone I know. I hope they will learn something in return!"

Media Doctor response,

"Thanks for the feedback. We look forward to any news tips you might have."
(11 Sep 2022) kiloutimuk writes,

"Hi

I am really excited. Keep up the great work. Good resources here.

Bye"

(05 Apr 2022) morganusvitus writes,

"The site looks great ! Thanks for all your help ( past, present and future !)"

(04 Apr 2022) morganusvitus writes,

"The site looks great ! Thanks for all your help ( past, present and future !)"

(16 Feb 2022) Robert Holmes from Retired physician writes,

"In view of Health Canada's recognition of the the immunological benefits of Cold-fx yesterday, I think it would be appropriate for David Baines to hand back the Jack Webster award which you handed him last year. Baines has persistently attacked this Canadian product for the past eight months or so, implying that it is quackery. He usually usually does better work, as with the Eron Mortgage scandal. I am glad that he and his two UBC pharmacology buddies have been proven wrong, but one can't help wondering if he or they were buying the stock, even as they helped to drive the share price down."

Media Doctor response,

"A few clarifications: Media Doctor Canada doesn't hand out journalism awards. Baines is one of the few journalists in Canada who has the time and energy to actually look at the quality of the clinical research. As he reported, "the incidence of laboratory-confirmed illnesses in both the placebo and ginseng groups is relatively small (nine per cent and one per cent), which means that COLD-fX, even if it does work, would be a questionable expenditure for most people."

I don't think that assessment is changed by Health Canada recognizing some benefits. Tthe question most people have is: How much benefit? Based on the study of Cold Fx, "13 nursing-home patients would have to take COLD-fX for two to three months to prevent one case of a laboratory-confirmed flu or RSV." Benefits yes, but hardly a ringing endorsement.
We need more journalists who actually take the time, like David Baines and perform a public service by exposing the manipulations of clinical research."
(15 Dec 2021) Michel Rochon from Radio-Canada writes,

"Bonjour,

I am a science and medical journalist working for Decouverte, the weekly television science show of the French CBC in Montreal. I discovered your site during my Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT where they showed us the healthnewsreview.org. Your site is a very good start for a Canadian version. As always (this is Canada!), I will be the French Canadian to tell you that it would be great to add some good French speaking Canadian media to your list, or, as it is too often the case, we will have to start a MediaDoctor.qc.ca.! Bravo for the initiative and I will consult your site weekly!"

Media Doctor response,

"Thank you very much for your response. It was always our intention to add the French component to our site once the English version was established. We will do this once we have the funds to do so. If there are particular health-related news sources you think we should monitor, please let us know."
(07 Dec 2021) Fred and Maye Green writes,

"Special thanks to Alan Cassels for all the wonderful articles he has written for COMMON GROUND.

If only we had 100 more Alan Cassels to overwhelm the media and lead us out of the Big Pharma nightmare and bankruptcy of our federal Government and each and every one of our Provinces, all under the phoney and criminal guise of providing HEALTH CARE."

Media Doctor response,

"Thanks for the kind comments. Media Doctor is about trying to improve the standards of medical journalism and to make our use of medicine more rational and appropriate. In that way we hope it's making a difference."
(06 Sep 2022) Lorna Hillman from BC MInistry of Health writes,

"Am I slow! I've never seen this web site before and it's great. I've always had a problem with how the media reports on health issues - in particular food and nutrition, but now with the increasing American advertising for pharmacueticals, this is so important to dispell myths and incorrect information. I will ensure all my contacts know about this web site. Thank you for the great work and service to the public."

Media Doctor response,

"Thank you Ms. Hillman for your comments. Be sure to alert your colleages to our sister sites in the US and Australia. As well, Hitting the Headlines in the UK
http://www.nelh.nhs.uk/hth/archive.asp
is worth a look and does some excellent examination of health issues in the news."
(18 Jun 2022) Bonnie Friesen from Usana Health Sciences writes,

"I am so thankful to see more and more doctors who have the honesty and integrity to question the use of many of the drugs that are being prescribed today. We are given physical and emotional pain for a reason. Our body is trying to tell us something. Masking the pain with powerful medications and mind altering drugs can have a disastrous effect on our lives. Patients must be willing to examine their entire lifestyle and realize that, as with everything, we eventually do reap what we sew. I am encouraged by this website and applaud every doctor who makes a decision not to be wined and dined by the pharmaceutical companies. I would like to see hospitals take the holistic approach that Dr. Wentz is taking at Sanoviv. www.sanoviv.com. We need more doctors and scientists who will follow his example.

Thank you for your commitment. I trust that one day we will all get to live with 'true' health.

Bonnie Friesen,
Richmond, B.C."

Media Doctor response,

"I am not sure if physicians are more questioning of the drugs they prescribe, but it is our hope that physicians, patients and journalists are asking appropriate questions about those treatments so they can be used in an informed way."
(31 Dec 2021) Helen Ayers from Retired R.N. writes,

"I heard about your site on CBC and was interested in finding a reference for the results of a study I had also heard about on CBC within the last three/four months.

This was regarding the lack of proven efficacy of Glucosamine in the treatment of arthritis. Using the search tool on your site I was unable to find any reference. It has always been a concern of the nursing profession that more medications are taken on the media hype and unpaid advertising than on the clinical trial results. Love your site for its objective - keep up the good work."

(22 Dec 2021) Ben writes,

"Nice work! The sensationalization of biological and health issues via poor reporting practices in the media is a tragedy! I hope your initiative helps encourage the media to improve the quality of their work.

I just heard your representative on CBC radio. Perhaps 6 to 12 months ago, the CBC did a report on animal versus human insulin. They reported on the absolute number of adverse reactions reported in the health canada database for each type of the drug--as opposed to comparable rates between the two types of insulin. They also shared this information with--as I recall--a diabetic patient that was very very interested in the issue. It was disturbing because the interviewee became quite worked up as a result of what she'd learned--even though the report provided nothing but absolute numbers of adverse reactions without any mention of how frequently each type is perscribed. Clearly, the reporter had no basic knowledge of statistics and may--or by luck perhaps he didn't--sensationalize the risks of insulin.

I'm an avid listener of the CBC,At any rate. If you ever get the chance to talk to the CBC again, look up this incident and use it as an example. Hopefully it will encourage them to improve their reporting."
(this comment has been moderated)

Media Doctor response,

"I didn't hear the report you are referring to but you are right that absoulte numbers alone can be misleading. One problem is that Adverse Reports of drugs are made voluntarily and Health Canada reports in terms of absolute numbers of incidents collected which doesn't give anyone any good sense of the overall frequency with which these adverse reactions may happen. As well, ADR reports are based on association and cannot be proof of causation."
(20 Dec 2021) Richard Eriksson writes,

"I'm wondering if there are any RSS feeds for Media Doctor. I'd love to have one for each media outlet, plus one for the main page, and possibly even one for each rating."

Media Doctor response,

"I'm sorry. I would also like to see such feeds but at this moment we are unable to do RSS feeds because of the potential for copyright/liability issues. When possible we put the internet link to the story. Sorry for any inconvenience.
cheers
Alan Cassels"
(20 Dec 2021) NEIL BLACKBURN from PRIVATE INDIVIDUAL writes,

"i AM UNABLE TO FIND ANY REFERENCE TO THE ARTICLE WHICH APPEARED IN THE VICTORIA TIMES COLONIST ON 15 DEC 05 ON NEUROPATHIC PAIN. THE ARTICLE OUTLINED A NEW BREAKTHROUGH IN THE CONTROL OF NEUROPATHIC PAIN AS A RESULT OF DISCOVERIES BY LAVAL UNIVERSITY AND THE TORONTO SICK CHILDRENS HOSPITAL."

Media Doctor response,

"We didn't review the story that 'appeared on December 15th in the Times Colonist because it was a very preliminary study in rats. Hopefully once results in people have been established and stories appear in the media, we will review those.
cheers,
Alan Cassels"
(19 Dec 2021) Tom Armet from mySeniorSite - Vancouver Island's Seniors Web Site writes,

"A great site that educates us on the accuracy of the media reports we so often take for granted.

We've featured your site in our "best of the web" December 20, 2005.

Thank you

Tom Armet
Director
www.mySeniorSite.ca"

Media Doctor response,

"Thank you, we appreciate the feedback.
Any particular comments from your readers could be sent directly to me: [email protected]

Cheers,
Alan Cassels"
(19 Dec 2021) Jonathan Orr-Stav from awcrh.net writes,

"Great resource and a great initiative.

Any possibility of an RSS "push" subscription?

Thanks

- Jonathan Orr-Stav"

Media Doctor response,

"Unfortunately, at the moment we won't be setting up the RSS feeds -It is likely we are already pushing the boundaries of what copyright lawyers may tolerate. Sending out a regular feed
of a media outlet's articles and our comments could see us facing legal issues. Sorry.
Alan Cassels"
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