Liberia: Journalists Pile On to Bash Ebola-Fighting Doctor Washington, DC — This is a story about an American physician many in Liberia regard as a hero. It is about his volunteer group, called Heartt – Health Education and Relief through Teaching – which has helped train hundreds of medical professionals who built a post-conflict health system that enabled impoverished Liberia to lead Africa in reducing deaths of children under five. It is also a story about how journalists from respected international media became an echo chamber for flawed reporting, even as their own news organizations promote themselves as more accurate, balanced and thorough than their upstart digital competition. It started with a Wall Street Journal story with a headline about Liberian Doctors who are Staying Away from the Ebola-Ravaged Country. The article focused on a single doctor who had decided to pull his medical training group out of his homeland because of mounting risks to doctors there. According to physicians interviewed by telephone for this analysis, including three who talked to Journal reporter Patrick McGroarty, his story had factual errors, misrepresentations, and quotes used out of context and without permission. Every medical professional contacted for this analysis says that the article missed an important story in favor of a sensationalized, incomplete and misleading version of the facts. Surgeon David Knight of Connecticut, reached while attending a medical conference in California, says McGroarty called him for help in contacting the Heartt founder, and Knight arranged a telephone interview between the two. The tone of the resulting article was an unpleasant surprise, says Knight, a regular Heartt volunteer, who felt the reporter had concealed his intentions. Dr. Knight was also dismayed by a copy-cat piece about the doctor in the Washington Post – what journalists call a story about a story – headlined: Heres why hes staying away from Ebola. Yet Post reporter Abby Ohlheiser never talked to the doctor or to his Liberian colleague, although she used quotes from both of them.allafrica/stories/201411242410.html
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 17:22:46 +0000
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