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"CFS may not be a chronic illness": Buzz60 - I don't even know where to begin...

Antares in NYC

Senior Member
Messages
582
Location
USA
The damage from last week's article in The Telegraph, and the desperate PR spin about the PACE study continue spreading all over the news landscape.

This video is bad. Words truly fail me here. Not sure if it's the cheery and dismissive narration, the falsehoods, the cheap stock videos, or the stereotypical images of perfectly healthy people yawning... I just don't even know where to begin.

Behold:


Don't you feel cured already? Where's the nearest gym, dammit?
 

dannybex

Senior Member
Messages
3,561
Location
Seattle
If anyone has a twitter account, the reporter has posted his twitter account name and should be flooded with the truth. What a clueless, brainless fool.

From the youtube link:

"Published on Oct 28, 2015
Researchers found that Chronic Fatigue Syndrome can be overcome through exercise and positive thinking. The treatment was proven to be effective in the long-term. Tom Hatton (@thetomhatton) has the details."
 

SB_1108

Senior Member
Messages
315
I commented on the utube link but apparently i was the only one to comment. Sounds like they areheavily moderating comments. Funny how they dont have any peoplewho have been cured by psychobabble posting how well they are.

I also commented and I guess they did not allow it. It doesn't show.
 

Tired of being sick

Senior Member
Messages
565
Location
Western PA USA
We all need to ignore this because if we don't they simply win..

why..

Defending one's self over ludicrous claims shows evidence that is making you unsure of your own diagnoses/illnesses..
 

SOC

Senior Member
Messages
7,849
We all need to ignore this because if we don't they simply win..

why..

defending one's self over ludicrous claims shows evidence that is making you unsure of your own diagnoses..
I do have to agree that there is a point where it's better to just roll our eyes and move on. Getting defensive over every ludicrous claim makes us look unconfident (Is that a word?) of the reality of our illness and desperate to prove ourselves.

Large audience media articles with false information need refutation. YouTube videos not so much. Any idiot can say anything in a YouTube video and the world knows it. If your grandmother says, "I saw on a YouTube video that...." All you have to say is, "You believe everything you see on a YouTube video? Really?"
 

JayS

Senior Member
Messages
195
I tweeted to the presenter when I first saw this last Wednesday.

https://twitter.com/ssppeerroo/status/659483815010803712

I wanted to write to the parent company of "Buzz60" but last week was a rollercoaster ride and I never found the time, at least when I had any strength. I received no reply but noticed that this guy's tweets were like the style of the presentation--lowest common denominator packaging of pop culture stuff. I saw something about Britney Spears; Adele; red carpets; okay, fine. This guy was just doing his job, so it's not like he should be held to some journalistic standard that needs to be applied to science writers who regurgitate press releases from the usual suspects. But the title was so bad that I googled it. And as it turns out, it wasn't just a YouTube video.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/video/popc...drome-may-not-be-a-chronic-illness/vi-BBmxD85

I don't think this is something that was seen by masses of people. But it looks like "Buzz60" has a contract with certain local news affiliates' websites in the US. Whether or not this ever made air, I don't know. But in all cases these videos were easily available on people's local TV stations' news websites.


Cincinnati, OH
http://www.wlwt.com/video/buzz60/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-may-not-be-a-chronic-illness/36101008

Fort Smith, AR
http://www.4029tv.com/video/buzz60/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-may-not-be-a-chronic-illness/36101008

Plattsburgh, NY
http://www.wptz.com/video/buzz60/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-may-not-be-a-chronic-illness/36101008

Portland, ME
http://www.wmtw.com/video/buzz60/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-may-not-be-a-chronic-illness/36101008

West Palm Beach, FL
http://www.wpbf.com/video/buzz60/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-may-not-be-a-chronic-illness/36101008

Oklahoma City, OK
http://www.koco.com/video/buzz60/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-may-not-be-a-chronic-illness/36101008

Pittsburgh, PA
http://www.wtae.com/video/buzz60/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-may-not-be-a-chronic-illness/36101008

Omaha, NE
http://www.ketv.com/video/buzz60/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-may-not-be-a-chronic-illness/36101008

Manchester, NH
http://www.wmur.com/video/buzz60/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-may-not-be-a-chronic-illness/36101008

Des Moines, IA
http://www.kcci.com/video/buzz60/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-may-not-be-a-chronic-illness/36101008

Louisville, KY
http://www.wlky.com/video/buzz60/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-may-not-be-a-chronic-illness/36101008


It goes without saying that Cincinnati and Pittsburgh are fairly large media markets. Oklahoma City, Louisville, and Omaha are all in the top 50 US cities in terms of population. West Palm Beach is no slouch; and I suspect that quite a few of the others are cities that are the largest towns for some distance.

This reminds me of the Natelson spinal fluid study--Schutzer et al, from around the time of PACE. There was some high-powered PR behind that one, prompting a segment on the national news--CBS, when Katie Couric was the anchor. I didn't think that segment did us any favors; it was a good counterbalance to the publicity surrounding PACE, but was more of a mild human-interest story that looked made to portray a middle-aged woman fiddling and fretting with a bucketful of supplements. There was a story, probably by a wire service, though I don't recall, that stuck out because it had a paragraph or two of comments by Suzanne Vernon--I think this is where she said that you can't just go around poking people in the spine, as this was the 'spinal fluid proteins' paper. I found that the story had made it onto local news affiliates' websites, way more than this video here. Dozens, maybe a hundred, I can't remember. I found it very odd, but it looked like these TV stations have a formula for what stories they bring to their website, probably in the hope that viewers will use the websites as a one-stop shop. That could very well be the case for the tech-challenged, the elderly, the infirm, and so on.

So I don't know exactly what to make of this; it's so cheesy it's almost more amusing than poor. It points towards Idiocracy: Brawndo's got electrolytes, 'cause that's what plants crave.


I'm not sure it's entirely harmless. You want to see something worth ignoring?

 

SB_1108

Senior Member
Messages
315
We all need to ignore this because if we don't they simply win..

why..

Defending one's self over ludicrous claims shows evidence that is making you unsure of your own diagnoses/illnesses..

I understand what you are saying but I respectfully disagree. I think its amazing the patient community is starting to find their voice. I'm hoping that patients continue the outcry, letting the media know that it is completely unacceptable to "make fun" of such a debilitating disease.
 

Tired of being sick

Senior Member
Messages
565
Location
Western PA USA
I understand what you are saying but I respectfully disagree. I think its amazing the patient community is starting to find their voice. I'm hoping that patients continue the outcry, letting the media know that it is completely unacceptable to "make fun" of such a debilitating disease.
Basically the only people who pay attention are the ones who have the disease or the ones bashing it.

Around 99% of Doctors/mainstream health professionals are either Ridiculing/bashing or just outright ignoring it..

The way I'm getting hep is calling it Vagus nerve dysfunction/damage as I am 90% convinced that this is
what CFS truly is........
 

dannybex

Senior Member
Messages
3,561
Location
Seattle
I commented on the utube link but apparently i was the only one to comment. Sounds like they areheavily moderating comments. Funny how they dont have any peoplewho have been cured by psychobabble posting how well they are.

That's odd. There's still a pretty blunt comment they left up from 3-4 days ago:

Here's the direct link to the youtube page -- be sure to click on the title on the video:


Post away! :)