WGA Report Supports CMD's 'Stop Fake News' Campaign

Anyone who has read my past posts knows I am at odds with the conventional views on fatness in this society. But even I was floored with how the media presented the "obesity is contagious" study this past weekend. The study was extremely limited - they did not ask people how many friends they had, how often they see them, how many are fat vs thin etc. Instead, they looked at the friends people put down as back up contacts in case researchers lost track of them. In some cases it was just one. (They were using data from a study designed for a completely different purpose!) Yet, it was uncritically hyped all over the media. The whole purpose of publishing in a journal is the peer review process. Studies need to be picked apart, then done over and over before we are comfortable with the findings. At least that is what I learned in my graduate methodology class. The media used to throw in an opposing point of view. No more. Even the MacNeil Leher Newshour played like a VNR. Not ONE criticism! They spun unlikely results like a fat friend far away one rarely sees has more influence than one's spouse or neighbor as brilliant instead of some statistical fluke. The media is even touting they proved CAUSATION. That causation can be proved from ONE study based on a computer model with such a limited, non representative sample of friends is mind boggling. Whether or not one agrees with the results of the study, the way it has been heralded in the media is downright scary. Those who don't care about stigma should be scared at the decline of scientific inquiry! Maybe not in the scientific community itself, but the way that community's results are being distorted to serve agendas.