4 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, March 16, 2005 OPINION C~Ije£hfgu&Iu JASON Z. PESICK Editor in Chief SUHAEL MOMIN S A SINGER Editorial Page Editors ALISON Go Managing Editor EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com NOTABLE QUOTABLE I'm not sure a rock star who is already having the cream on the cake would ever have a Nobel Peace Prize." - U2 frontman Bono, downplaying specu- lation that he might win the Nobel Peace Prize, in comments backstage at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Monday, according to billboard.com. E ust ice, if al laws are derived fror God, what happens if yo don't believei God? -r obviously donu jy getcto no d th~igt . SAM BUTLER THE SOA-ioX 0 T?~ ~ Il m ou n L- I -_ __ _ __ - _ __ __. ._ _ - The shadow press JORDAN SCHRADER PORT HURON STATEMENT t's a night in March, just as fruitless. The last time you surfed the course: They became the actors in the gov- 2009. You're watch- Web, you spent 15 minutes reading an "Asso- ernment commercials, and found the pay a ing the last few min- ciate Press" story about the spread of free- good deal better than in the working press. utes of the CBS Evening dom throughout the globe before realizing it Recall that back in 2005, satellite sub- News with anchor Gwen was in a pop-up window on top of the Asso- scribers could already turn on the Pentagon Ifill. Scratch that, too ciated Press story you had wanted to read. Channel for the latest positive reports from optimistic: the CBS Eve- You long for the good old days of 2005, Iraq. But Pentagon spokespeople deflected ning News with anchor when the government's campaign to counter charges of propaganda by pointing out that Nondescript Whiteguy. real news reports with fake ones was still in the network provided full press conferences A correspondent reports its infancy. When most of the time you could without any "spin." the disturbing results turn on the TV and count on a real journalist Unfortunately, the government press con- of an investigation into telling you the news. ference became even less informative than Our nation's schools. It seems that a record Back then, the most popular faux-news before, as political operatives began taking number of inner-city schools are failing their program was "The Daily Show," which has the seats once occupied by reporters. One students. Test scores and graduation rates are long since been overtaken in the ratings by pioneer in this field participated in White dropping across the country. "Good Evening with Armstrong Williams." House press briefings (under the pseud- After that bit of doom and gloom, Non- People didn't mind that the White House onym Jeff Gannon) as early as 2003, asking descript signs off and a different news show chief of staff signed Williams's paychecks, President Bush's spokesman such scathing comes on. The reporter on this program as long as he kept cheering them up at night. questions as, "Doesn't Joe Wilson owe the looks equally bland, but he has a much sun- Official public relations passed off as news president and America an apology for his nier message: American schools are doing hardly seemed so pervasive in 2005. Sure, deception and his own intelligence failure?" better than ever. Thanks to the policies of the once in a while the local news would turn and "I would like to comment on the angry current administration, kids have self-esteem the mic over to a government shill who the mob that surrounded Karl Rove's house on in spades and parents brim with pride in their anchor identified as just another reporter for Sunday." These kind of softballs became the community schools. Just ask this parent. Just Local 7. Those prepackaged reports issued norm in later years. look at these smiling pupils raising their by the State Department, the Census Bureau hands. Pay no attention to what you saw in and many other agencies seemed fairly harm- False journalists, make-believe news that last broadcast. less - except to the folks at the nonparti- reports and propaganda channels - You turn the TV off, knowing that turn- san Government Accountability Office. The they're all part of the shadow press, ing to another channel like CNN would GAO reported that the spots were designed amply documented right here in 2005. No only reveal the same confusing juxtaposi- "to be indistinguishable from news stories science-fiction flights of fancy needed. tion of traditional and triumphant news. produced by private sector television news I know what you're thinking: Isn't covert You make a mental note to pick up a copy organizations" and warned against "covert government propaganda better than what's of the newspaper tomorrow morning. Just propaganda." on the news right now? remember this time not to accidentally take The real media certainly didn't mind. Even after watching Fox 2 Problem Solv- one from those other racks. Those other They could rely on this mimicry to fill the ers bring weekly vigilante justice to "gov- papers look almost identical to the ones gaps left after budget cuts forced them to lay ernment workers goofing off on the job," I you usually read, but they invariably carry off reporters and producers. Besides, it was still say no. But we may find out sooner than good news about government programs getting harder and harder to find good staff, we'd like. beneath mastheads bearing the names "US as plummeting public trust in the media left Today" and "The New York Time." Close, aspiring journalists with second thoughts. Schrader can be reached at but no cigar. So where did all those disenchanted com- jtschradCumich.edu. Going online for current events would be munications majors go? Why into PR, of LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 0 Cdum stigywsamzplic lerghy FDA 4pmwproe To ThE DpMy: This letter is in response to Sam Singer's column (How Adderall slipped through the cracks, 03/15/2005). While well written and seemingly thoroughly researched, I think Singer has followed the lead of the main- stream media and blown out of proportion an issue relating to prescription drugs. From the beginning, he suggests that Adderall is an example of how pharmaceutical companies take advantage of the public by stating that Attention Deficit Disorder is "an epidemic of the upper class." Singer seems to believe that ADD is a made-up disorder for misbehaving or underachieving kids of wealthy parents. Throughout my years of schooling I (like pre- sumably most people our age) knew several people with ADD, and economic standing had little correlation to who was diagnosed. I realize this fact hardly constitutes clinical data, but I did observe Adderall and simi- lar drugs help struggling friends from many backgrounds. Next, Singer attacks the FDA by basically providing arguments frequently heard the past few months, that the FDA frequently lets dangerous drugs "slip through the cracks" and then tries to cover up its mistakes. He men- tions that Adderall has been linked to about 20 deaths in Canada according to Health Canada and criticizes the FDA for not seeing this as evidence that Adderall poses a health threat. However, this is a very small percent- age when you consider how much Adderall is prescribed and the many confounding factors that may also be contributing to the deaths. The article goes on to mention the much- repeated reports of adolescent suicide risks linked to Paxil and Zoloft and Vioxx's links to heart complications and death. Unfortunately, Singer does not present the latest information in either case. Last month, the FDA backed off its statement that there was a causal link between adolescent violent behavior/suicide and Paxil or Zoloft (drugs that the FDA never approved for children and teens anyway). In regards to Vioxx, Singer must not have seen that the FDA voted to allow Vioxx back on the market after pulling it last fall, suggesting the risk is not as great as initially thought. side effects, and many drugs can kill you if taken improperly. Adderall was not approved to treat college students needing to pull all- nighters during finals week, yet how many of us know students who have gone to UHS and faked symptoms to get a prescription? Drugs are not miracles, and it is not impossible for drugs with dangerous side effects to make it to the market. However, I don't think it's the job of the media to discover these health threats. Mike Deogracias Alum The letter writer is a research assistant in the Pathology Department. Dr'u tsspr or to we~xe cwirnct catd, all side efects To THE DAiLY: I am writing in response to How Adderall slipped through the cracks (03/15/2005) by Sam Singer which was a comment on the increas- ing popularity of the "black market" prescrip- tion dextroamphetamine, Adderall. I would like to begin by saying that there are obvious drawbacks to the current system of checks and balances the Food and Drug Adminis- tration uses to monitor and control marketed prescription drugs. However, I would like to clear up any misunderstandings one may have about how a drug is released to the public. As our current system works, a candidate drug wishing to make it onto the market will reach no more than 3,000 people before being released to the public, so it is virtually impos- sible to know how severe the toxicity of the drug is in larger groups of the population. For example, a certain drug may produce an "adverse event" - an undesirable side effect - in a considerable fraction, say 100 cases out of 100,000 people taking the drug. This num- ber is significant when the sample size of the population is so large, but it is only three out of the 3,000 people that will take the drug before it is on the market. The significance might or might not be noticed in clinical trials, but the point is that is much harder to identify until the drug reaches large numbers of people. So in order to balance this problem, the FDA has a couple different programs in place. One is where doctors and other health professionals report adverse events to drug people may be harmed by a drug so long as it is obvious enough that a considerably larger number will benefit from it. James Michel RC junior MSA dws dar dim boad nukemlelt in canr4xign To THEDAuL: This letter is in response to Jeremy David- son's article (MSA election board questioned over bias, 03/15/2005). In this, article, David- son wrote "(Carl) Pogoncheff said the election board, which is composed of members of (the Michigan Student Assembly), acted with bias during the last election when issuing a punish- ment for Tim Wiggins, a Students 4 Michigan candidate who was kicked out of campaigning in the dorms by University Housing last semes- ter." There is a factual mistake in this passage that we would like to clear up. MSA and the election board did not issue this punishment to Wiggins. The issue was handled and the punishment was delivered solely by the Residence Halls Association. The election board deals with complaints from candidates or parties against other candidates or parties. The complaint against Wiggins was made to RHA and came from students in the residence halls. The election board played no part in hearing this complaint, norhanding down the punishment. Furthermore, there were no complaints registered with the election board in the last election, and consequently no punishments were delivered. Brian Doughty Engineering senior The letter writer is the MSA Election Director. Russ Garber LSA junior The letter writer is the MSA Rules and Elections Committee Chair. Immo" bockktmykv should ha w been rienwd ToTHE DAil: I am writing to bring your attention to the recent book review by Bernie Nguyen (Revamped 'Kama Sutra' blows, 03/08/2005). 0I 0 0 --1 .4i