Every television station has their own physician pundit commenting on medical news.
But with some many different fields of medicine, how can a single physician claim to be an expert on every health topic?
Surgeon Jeffrey Parks takes issue with ABC News’ recent coverage on the tragic death of Senator John Murtha. Richard Bessler, a pediatrician who works at the CDC, was the on camera expert commenting on the surgical complication.
In analyzing the pundit, Dr. Parks noted “you can tell that he looked at a human atlas and saw that the colon seems to be pretty close to the gallbladder,” and, “his hypothesis [was] detached from any semblance of statistical likelihood.”
Being a television medical expert means more than looking good and having a charismatic demeanor. Getting facts straight needs to count for something as well.
