Dr. Jon LaPook

Liberal Media Stood Against Sitting For Years; New Research Suggests Sitting Isn’t Deadly
By Michael Greibrok | November 3, 2015 | 12:14 PM EST

The media love a good scare and a sensational headline, but new research indicates the fear they spread about the dangers of sitting too much may be overblown.


In recent years, media outlets compared sitting to health risks like smoking, and even warned “Sitting will kill you.” Today told viewers sitting was “literally killing us” back on Sept. 18, 2015. ABC’s Deborah Roberts even claimed sitting was “one of the greatest risks to our health.” One expert CBS turned to went so far as to claim “any” sitting was “too much.”

CBS Touts Assisted Suicide on Brink of Passage in California; Barely Covers Pro-Life Side
By Curtis Houck | September 11, 2015 | 12:34 AM EDT

On Thursday, the CBS Evening News pushed a heavily slanted report on assisted suicide a day before the California State Senate will vote on whether or not to legalize the matter in the Golden State that would be modeled after Oregon’s law allowing doctors to provide lethal medication to extremely ill patients. In the three-minute-and-three-second segment, only 32 seconds were devoted to the pro-life cause against euthanasia that chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook ruled will not be settled anytime soon.

CBS’s LaPook Helps Obama Advance Narrative Climate Change Is Harmful to Personal Health
By Curtis Houck | April 8, 2015 | 9:00 PM EDT

Wednesday’s edition of the CBS Evening News chose to re-air portions of chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook’s interview with President Obama on climate change supposedly threatening public health and included LaPook fretting at the end to anchor Scott Pelley that “climate change legislation has stalled in Congress.” The network’s cheerleading of Obama’s newest environmental initiative began right at the top of the newscast as Pelley teased the segment to viewers: “The President speaks with us about how climate change is making people sick.”

CBS, NBC Promote ObamaCare Regulation on Publicly Displaying Calorie Counts
By Curtis Houck | November 26, 2014 | 2:43 AM EST

During their Tuesday evening newscasts, CBS and NBC squeezed in a few moments each to promote the newest health-related regulation set to affect Americans under ObamaCare next year in the form of additional requirements regarding the listing of calories for food and drinks at public eating establishments, vending machines, and movie theaters.

Both networks pointed out that the move was announced and will be overseen by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but failed to present any opposition to these changes with NBC neglecting to even mention that the regulations derived from the President’s health care law.

Networks Confident in CDC Over Ebola, Ignore Agency Failures in 98 Percent of News Reports
By Joseph Rossell | October 2, 2014 | 3:51 PM EDT

In spite of revelations in recent months the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) mishandled strains of deadly bird flu, anthrax and botulism, the broadcast networks remained confident the government’s “disease detectives” could handle the Ebola outbreak.

On Sept. 30, the CDC announced that a patient in Texas was the first instance of Ebola in the U.S. But from the very beginning of the Ebola outbreak in March 2014, networks’ evening news programs have demonstrated their resounding faith in the capability of the CDC by ignoring agency failures in 98 percent of stories on Ebola (53 of 54).

Exposed: Network TV Docs Give Cash to Dems, Promote ObamaCare on Air
By Rich Noyes | August 5, 2009 | 10:31 AM EDT
ABC was embarrassed last week by NewsBusters’ exposure of how their new senior medical editor, Dr. Richard Besser of the federal Centers for Disease Control, donated $400 to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008, presumably an indication of his political sympathies. An ABC News spokeswoman, Cathie Levin, defended Besser to the Associated Press, arguing that he’s a doctor “whose job it is to give impartial and unvarnished advice and he’ll be able to do the same for a television audience.”

Maybe Besser can indeed separate his political views from his reporting on health care, but a review of campaign finance records at OpenSecrets.org finds that CBS’s Dr. Jon LaPook and NBC’s Dr. Nancy Snyderman have also chipped in their own cash to Democratic — but never Republican — candidates. And both correspondents, along with Besser’s future ABC colleague, Dr. Tim Johnson, have showered the liberal Obama health care plan with fawning press. Details:
CBS Doc: Be Careful Not to Catch Fat From Your Friends!
By Ken Shepherd | July 26, 2007 | 11:52 AM EDT

Our friends at the MRC's Business & Media Institute (BMI) have documented the media's obsession with the so-called obesity epidemic in this country.

CBS, NBC Launch Attack on Regular and Diet Soda
By Julia A. Seymour | July 24, 2007 | 5:32 PM EDT

The list of media-approved drinks in dwindling. Bottled water is out for its contribution to global warming, we're not supposed to chuckle at beer ads and energy drinks make kids sick according to the news media.CBS and NBC warned of the dangers of soda, even diet soda, on July 23.