The Media and Your Health

For decades, most Americans assumed, for good reason, that what they heard on the news was something they could trust.

It was like that for a long, long time.

But now it’s not like that.

The news has become anything but what it once was. There’s very little on the major news networks that is free from bias.

And when it comes to your health, that’s a big deal.

The fact is that the news networks are less incentivized to create news based on what their paying customer base wants. The reason is that many news networks are not funded by customers, but by advertisers.

And as Statista reports, the leading advertisers on the major news channels are pharmaceutical companies.

So let’s talk about this. Let’s talk about why this could be a problem and how those of us who care about our health can make decisions for ourselves in a world of confusion.

How Did the News Get To Be So Untrustworthy?

As a physician and an integrative physician at that, what I care about when it comes to people’s health is figuring out why a person is sick.

Many times people become sick based on what they put into their bodies.

Too much sugar in, disease may result.

Ingesting too many inflammatory foods and petrochemicals could lead to chronic health issues.

And so on and so forth.

This is why we always approach health from a causal standpoint and don’t go straight to a prescriptive methodology to make people well.

What goes in the body can really mess you up.

And this is just as true of food as it is of information.

When you absorb bad info, then you can actually become sickened in the process.

Now I want to be careful here.  I

don’t want to use words like misinformation, disinformation, etc.

I think these buzzwords are doing a disservice to critical thinking.

Instead, what I want to talk about is why the news has changed, and how that impacts us as a culture. And as a result, how you can approach information gathering in a new way.

I also don’t intend to offer you a history lesson here, but I want to point out how we got to this place where media is skewed towards an industry built on selling drugs for health.

And one more thing.

There’s never been a time when the news didn’t serve someone’s interests to the disadvantage of another.   People always try to get their way, and what the media promulgates (it’s a good word for this), has always been produced with an agenda.

It’s just that now, things are really, really bad.

Part of the problem is that almost all the networks you see on your local news, and even the national news, both in print and on TV, are owned by just a few corporations.

And these corporations answer to no one.

Meaning, whatever they want to be talked about is what gets discussed and if an opposing or contrary opinion (or fact) is surfaced by someone at the lower levels it generally gets squashed.

This centralization of power and control means you never get the full scoop about anything.

Another factor that made the news less trustworthy than it once was has to do with the advent of the Internet.

Once the Internet came about news channels had to figure out how to compete for attention and they had to change their business model. This is especially true of newspapers and print media.

The Internet age created a race to the bottom where facts and truths were sacrificed for clicks.

And, perhaps the biggest change in how the media operates has to do with what I talked about above. Who pays to keep the stations and the newspapers alive?

Advertisers.

Because most media organizations aren’t funded by customers, but by advertisers, the advertisers writing the checks can dictate what goes out over the airwaves (or what’s printed on the page).

That’s a huge problem because the majority of advertising dollars are being spent to prop up an industry that promises to make sick people well…but seems to be about keeping sick people sick.

Essentially, the pharmaceutical industry needs the news to bend or obscure the truth, so people who are in the habit of trusting the talking heads or journalists make decisions that keep them in a state of using their products.

If I’d written this 5 or so years ago most people who read this article would think I’m wearing a tinfoil hat.

But as “conspiracy theories” turn into facts in a matter of months, I think it’s plain to see… which then begs the question, “Who’s pulling the strings?  And why?”

Your Medical Freedom Is at Risk Because of the Media

This past 18 months as my wife and I (along with many others) set out to work diligently to protect our right to practice medicine the way we see fit… and for patients to choose their medical care as they see fit, has  opened up my eyes to how big of a problem the media as a whole is.

Not everyone working in media is a problem…

And not every journalist or reporter is aware of what’s going on. 

However, it only takes a tiny bit of critical thinking to realize that if companies spending billions and billions on advertising every year can control the messaging of “what’s healthy, and what’s not,” they can cause untold damage to millions of Americans as well as our healthcare system.

In essence, modern medicine and the media machine we live with, are a giant racket (and no I’m not being hyperbolic here).

We’ve seen this to be true as we practice medicine right outside the bubble of modern medicine.

When we go against the status quo, we’re attacked. And if we’re attacked that means you are too.

So this is why I wrote this article.

To help you understand that the official stance of mainstream media is to sell you things.

And no, it doesn’t matter which organization we’re talking about.

They’re all guilty, and it’s pointless to think that this organization or that is exempt.

In my next article on the subject, I’ll show you the way to fight for truth and ensure you’re always learning about what’s actually good for you and your family.