Bias Makes Media Overreact to Embryonic Stem Cell Hype, Researcher Claims
by Mary Rettig
September 29, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Wesley Smith, a senior fellow for the Discovery Institute, says the mainstream media continues to trumpet scientific "non-breakthroughs" involving embryonic stem cells while largely ignoring genuine breakthroughs with adult stem cells.Last week, Dr. Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technologies published a report in the journal Cloning and Stem Cells, reporting that human embryonic stem cells had been used to partially restore vision in blinded rats. However, the Discovery Institute's Wesley Smith says this is not only not a new discovery, but it was previously done in 2004 with the more ethical adult stem cells. "That breakthrough made very little news," he notes.
On the other hand, Smith observes, "if it's embryonic stem cells and it's a breakthrough, the news media picks it up, plays it up big." And the reason for this tendency in the media, he contends, is "because their main agenda in these issues is to undermine President Bush's federal funding policy -- not necessarily report the news."
And because of the mainstream media's bias, the research fellow asserts, news outlets often swarm around supposed breakthroughs in embryonic stem-cell research applications, even when the source of such news has given the public and the press good reason to be circumspect. After all, he notes, Dr. Lanza "was recently involved in -- and let us be kind -- a wild hyping of a previous research in which he said that he had created embryonic stem cells without destroying embryos."
Only later did the truth about Lanza's claim come to light, Smith says. "In fact, he had destroyed every embryo he had used in that research," the Discovery Institute spokesman explains. "And yet for some reason," he notes, "when Robert Lanza comes out with this new report, the media views it just as unskeptically as they did the previous report when, it turns out, he had been misleading the press."
When the public hears about breakthroughs in embryonic stem-cell technology, Smith advises, they need to be discerning and look beyond mainstream media reports. In this day and age of politicized science, he warns, it is unlikely that anyone will find all of the facts in such liberal news outlets.
Mary Rettig, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
