Our failed media experiment, New York Times edition

[p_zeitgeist]

So, who else has read today's Page 1 story about alleged over-prescription of pain medication for workers who have suffered workplace injuries

Comments

[semyaza]

The moral panic over narcotics (and other drugs), fuelled by the media and law enforcement, is never-ending but that's no reason not to speak out. It's hard enough to get appropriate pain medication from doctors without the media making the problem worse.

[p_zeitgeist]

No, the only reason not to speak out is that dreary sense that it's no more than spinning my wheels: no one at the Times will actually care or do anything about it. But you're right: this sort of thing does genuine harm, and it doesn't hurt to have them at least reminded from time to time that when they whine about how Americans no longer trust the press, they're whining about a problem they've created by not being remotely trustworthy. And that they could fix, if only they're willing to put some time and work into changing that.

[semyaza]

I agree about the reason not to speak out - I feel that way too often myself - but then I wonder if I'm shirking a moral responsibility by keeping silent. Mostly, I'm a shirker because I have no confidence in the likelihood of change.

ETA: And having read your comment below - it may just be stupidity.

[p_zeitgeist]

It may be. But stupidity doesn't fully account for the overall tone of the piece: its strong subtext is that measures various players are taking or proposing to address the supposed problem of Too Much Pain Medication are positive steps that we should all support. And it takes its fundamental premise that what's going on with pain medication is in fact that it's overprescribed and in most instances harmful in some mysterious way as, well, a premise: it never allows for any possibility that the pain medication is being prescribed because there are too many people who have a serious problem with pain instead. This, despite the acknowledgment that nobody can say that the pain medication causes any of the problems discussed, and that there isn't even some credible hypothesis out there about how it might

[p_zeitgeist]

I don't know about more eloquent, or less sarcastic. But perhaps I can summon my inner Concern Troll for the job. I suppose if it's still bothering me 24 hours later, I ought to say something

[ellen_kushner]

You should totally write a letter, because You Write the Best Letters Ever!

They'll read it.

[p_zeitgeist]

Thanks for the vote of confidence!

I wonder, though. I mean, they'd probably read it (if I can figure out a way to make it shorter than the article itself; there's a lot wrong with the thing). But, would anyone care?

. . . well, maybe the reporter would. On rereading, I have a potential alternate picture of him: as a courageous man doing his best to inform the public within the constraints of the system, and cleverly inserting that line into the middle of the story in the same spirit that a reporter in China might insert a line acknowledging that his story about how good the air in Beijing was that day was not to be taken at face value. In which case he might like to know that a reader or two had noticed.

[ellen_kushner]

Well you could, I suppose, just invite them to read the terrific comments in this post - prefaced by a short note, a kind of "abstract" for what is to come.

It depends on your actual goal, here.

Me, I never write Letters to Editors because it takes me so tremendously long to get my thoughts into coherent non-fiction narrative form that the ship will usually have sailed by the time I reach the dock. I'm reluctant to spend the time, when it may lead to no results.

But you don't seem to have that problem.

[lady_ganesh]

There is a good organization out there, I can't remember its name because I don't have my professional hat on, that's a consortium of chronic pain patients, doctors, prescription providers, etc. who are working to keep access to pain meds while curbing the level of potential abuse (which is mostly from diverted meds). Might be worth a Google.

I like that the NYT doesn't bother to note that maybe, perhaps, workplaces should work on avoiding workplace injuries or better treating the injury with more expensive things like, you know, physical therapy. (Blah, blah, pain med concern trolling, try to get reimbursement for PT.)

[p_zeitgeist]

Well, to be as fair as I can be, the article does talk toward the end about how part of the root of the problem is likely that some years ago, insurers started encouraging doctors to prescribe meds instead of therapy, by refusing to pay for therapy and reimbursing happily for the meds. (I've just been rereading the thing to see whether I was being unreasonable and overreacting. And the answer is, not a lot: what it gains on possible honesty it loses instantly in increased stupidity

[ellen_kushner]

All the more reason for you to make a stink yourself: the voices of unaffiliated citizens make a real difference, adding to the clamor, when an Organization is also involved.

Actually, as I look at this, it looks like what you really want is to do a piece for Huffington, responding to the NYTimes piece (as my colleague, Noreen T., just did re. the New Yorker's SF/F screed - it wasn't very good, but it's clear that HP encourages this sort of thing - OK, you already knew that because you've been reading HP since I was in diapers...??? - anyway, just take everything on this page, organize it in neat paragraphs, and submit it. I'll help if you don't know how. They'll adore you.

[p_zeitgeist]

Or someplace like Huffington that isn't Huffington itself, because that's not a good venue for medical issues -- it's pushed too much medical woo to be credible. (I can't recall off the top of my head whether it's sunk into the pits of anti-vaccination activism, but my rough I-have-a-feeling memory says that it has