The Huffington Post is one of the most prominent, and fastest growing, news sites, and as pediatrician Rahul Parikh puts it, “one of the most valuable pieces of real estate on the Internet these days.”
They have a prominent health and wellness section, but as you can read from Dr. Parikh’s piece, The Huffington Post is crazy about your health, readers be warned.
As with their approach to other topics, The Huffington Post accepts submissions from a wide variety of bloggers, some of whom, “mirror [founder Arianna Huffington's] own advocacy of alternative medicine.”
With such influence, that can be problematic. Well documented are numerous pieces advocating against childhood vaccines, and perpetuating its mythical link with autism. And by accepting factually suspect pieces on the subject by celebrities, such as actor Jim Carrey for instance, it’s a powerfully dangerous platform for misinformation.
What Dr. Parikh simply asks for is fairness and accuracy from such an influential site, but in his words, they “take a back seat to sensationalism and self-promotion on the Huffington Post.”
Indeed.
Related posts:
- Should Oprah be giving medical advice?
- Both the far left and right agree not to receive the H1N1 vaccine
- Rahul Parikh on the KevinMD Live Q&A: Tuesday, July 21st at 10:30pm Eastern
- How should Oprah handle medical issues?
- Medical students post inappropriate content online
- Submit a guest post on KevinMD and be heard
- Online advice that can kill
{ 5 comments }
Yes, but only if you are a left wing ideologue.
WRT health/health care, HuffPo is the innernets equivalent of the Oprah Winfrey Show.
Hmmm, do you believe it when Evans says that you are full of it, or do you think that she is full of it?
Zsa Zsa, I mean Arianna, is unencumbered by evidence. Her site reflects her style. Still, Nico Pitney’s reportage on the Iran election was topnotch. There are other diamonds in this rough.
Well … we do have a primary care shortage don’t we? HuffPo can help with the expanding load under obamacare.
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