From the standpoint of the public, honest, well-researched, and unbiased health related news and information is expected, even assumed. Is it possible, however, that the financial and business ties between major drug companies and the media have affected content as well as pharmaceutical company advertising? Has the influence of drug companies and their advertising dollars indirectly, if not directly, censored health related news?

Direct-to-Consumer Advertising

Since 1997, when the FDA started to permit the pharmaceutical industry to practice direct-to-consumer advertising, the media has been bombarded with pharmaceutical company advertising — magazine ads, television commercials, and billboards, all toting the benefits of prescription drugs such as Lipitor and Seasonique. Is, for instance, Boniva the best solution for post-menopausal osteoporosis, or are their alternative ways that we can address our health, without side effects such as stomach ulcers and pain in the arms and legs, that the mass media is rarely or never mentioning?

Does the media question the medical information conveyed in ads which they display? When a healthy, thirty-something woman was displayed in a magazine ad about the blood thinner, Lovenox, insinuating that the drug would prevent the highly dangerous illness, deep vein thrombosis, the media did not check the content of the advertisement for misinformation. According to The Seattle Times article, "Suddenly Sick," written by Susan Kelleher and Duff Wilson (June 2005), deep vein thrombosis only affects the elderly who are immobilized or recovering from a surgery, not healthy young women.