The Express has once again splashed some results of a small medical study on its front page, hinting at some miracle cure that doesn't really exist. A month ago it was doing it with the miracle tomato pill.Today, 'scientists find elixir of youth'. Yes really. Except errr, they haven't. The main headline makes it sound as if the new pill is ready to go and will definitely add 20 years to life. (The story has popped up in many places, but the Express have given it the most prominence)
In fact, researchers claim some middle-aged mice have had their lifespan extended by around a third by having a compound called rapamycin. So 'drug can add to 20 years to life of lab mice' might be more accurate.
Rapamycin has been used since the 1970s to help transplant patients not reject new organs. But here's what the Times reports (albeit in an article which also uses 'elixir of life' in the headline):
Nobody should take rapamycin in the hope of living longer...its dangers to healthy people would far outweigh any potential benefit.
Oh. The Express do add the caveat that 'it is not yet suitable for use on people' but add 'researchers say it opens the door to the first generation of pills that will extend lifespan'. Except they've said it might.
Which isn't what their front page headline said. But what also stands out about the Express story is the way it reads like the press release from the University of Texas Health Science Center. Here's a few examples:
Express:
The Easter Island compound – called rapamycin after the island’s Polynesian name Rapa Nui – was found to extend expected lifespan by 38 per cent when tested on mice.
The University of Texas Health Science Center:
the Easter Island compound – called “rapamycin” after the island’s Polynesian name, Rapa Nui – extended the expected lifespan of middle-aged mice by 28 percent to 38 percent.
Express:
The latest anti-ageing experiments found that adding rapamycin to the diet of older mice increased their lifespan.
The University of Texas Health Science Center:
The new aging experiments found that adding rapamycin to the diet of older mice increased their lifespan.
Express:
But rapamycin appears to partially shut down the same molecular pathway as restricting food intake or reducing growth factors.
The University of Texas Health Science Center:
Rapamycin appears to partially shut down the same molecular pathway as restricting food intake or reducing growth factors.
The Express also uses several of the same quotes from the press release, with only the most moderate attempt to change the words slightly, as if written by a lazy student. But remember what Peter Hill told the 'Press standards, privacy and libel inquiry' of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee:
He also attacked press commentators' use of the word "churnalism" to denote the rewriting of press releases and falling standards in journalism.
"It's a rubbish word. It's a gimmicky word. The standards of journalism have massively increased over the years," Hill said.
And he said it with a straight-face too.
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Standards can't 'increase' - massively or otherwise - they may improve, or, in this case, as Hill unwittingly confirms, decline.
ReplyDeletePeter Hill - "It's a rubbish word. It's a gimmicky word. The standards of journalism have massively increased over the years," Hill said.
ReplyDeleteNational Union of Journalists Press Release -
"Churnalism is a a rubbish word. It's a gimmicky word. The standards of journalism have massively increased over the years. By the way, Peter Hill is an arse".