I just emailed NBC News' email address
contact.nbcnews@nbcuni.com. This is the email address specifically set aside "To report an error or comment on NBCNews.com or an NBC News program." I encourage others to do so. Although there were many problems with the report, I think the most egregious error was Dr. Natalie's Azar's statement at the end about CBT and GET. I chose to focus on that.
Edit: The text of what I sent is copied below. (If you believe I went too easy on the HHS, the IOM report, and other aspects of the NBC report, that was deliberate. I believe if you want to have any chance of changing minds of average people, you have to pick small winnable battles. I'm not trying to win the whole war with this email.)
Dear NBC News,
You normally do a fantastic job and I typically recognize and appreciate your professionalism. However, you ran a report about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome today that ran afoul of acceptable journalistic practices. It started with a video package that highlighted some of the key points of the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) findings in a new report, among them: that the disease is
not psychological and that exercise worsens the condition. (This is actually not new information, but these findings are, apparently, finally being recognized by HHS). Then the report really fell apart.
Lester Holt interviewed Dr. Natalie Azar and Dr. Azar directly contradicted the information in the the preceding video package, and in the IOM report that the piece was about. She merely recited decades-old, disproved treatment theories, i.e. that exercise and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy are affective treatments for CFS. This is demonstrably false - they have been proven ineffective again and again in peer reviewed studies because serious immune deficiencies (among other things) are at the root of the disease. Dr. Azar seemed unprepared and misinformed. She apparently didn’t read the IOM report that was the subject of the piece.
Please let Dr. Azar know that she is not there simply to fill airtime, but rather to add value to the discussion. Today, she created confusion and spread blatantly incorrect information. It was unacceptable by any standard of journalism.
Sincerely,