On November 16, protesters gathered at the offices of a Cambridge drug maker. They say people are dying because of insulin price hikes.

The campaign to lower the price of insulin came to Cambridge Massachusetts on Nov. 16.  A small group of protesters gathered in the freezing rain outside the local office of the pharmaceutical giant Sanofi.

Nicole Smith-Holt, protester
Nicole Smith-Holt, protester

They are part of a broad push to bring down the price of insulin, which has jumped in recent years.  The police were there, and the employees had been sent home.  The protesters gathered across the street for about an hour and later ended up at a nearby Starbucks. We talked to them there.

More here from the Globe.

 

Yesterday’s #journalism class assignment: Go cover the #RedSox victory parade live via social media

Class ended at 9:30. Victory parade started a few block away at 11.

Red Sox fan Carrie Casello talks about why she came to the #RedSoxParade today: pic.twitter.com/9rfxizA7DB

— Simone Migliori (@migliori_simone) October 31, 2018


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Peddlers are handing out programs for the Red Sox World Serious Victory Parade.

A post shared by EJY (@ecejyavuz) on Oct 31, 2018 at 7:03am PDT

Deadly hot dogs: Why nutrition studies are so hard to cover

When I was newspaper reporter, an epidemiological study came out of UNC that found a correlation between the consumption of hot dogs and brain tumors in kids. As I recall, this caught the attention of parents in the newsroom, possibly  fueled by the number of hot dogs consumed by the children of editors.

These are tough stories because they seem to offer nutrition advice. But it can be hard to explain that:

    1. Correlation and cause are different.
    2.  Rarely is a single study definitive.

So, now we see the topic debated by two bigs names in science. One made his name doing studies like this and another who has made his name by challenging the validity of out current approaches to scientific research.

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From John Ioannidis – respected skeptic, former Tufts researcher

Some nutrition scientists and much of the public often consider epidemiologic associations of nutritional factors to represent causal effects that can inform public health policy and guidelines. However, the emerging picture of nutritional epidemiology is difficult to reconcile with good scientific principles. The field needs radical reform.

Response from respected Harvard nutrition researcher Walter Willett

In a September 14, Medscape article, Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition, said the argument in the JAMA commentary is unconvincing and misrepresents existing nutrition literature. He maintained that the author greatly exaggerated the challenges of epidemiological research.

 

Debating the value of nutrition research

More on Ioannidis:

 

 

Crossing The Divide: A reporting road trip

Video below is about the project. Find the stories here.

“Crossing the Divide” was a reporting road trip that took five early-career journalists across America during a time of deep divisions. This multimedia and multi-platform reporting project was a co-production of The GroundTruth Project and WGBH Youth Media, and also included partnerships with local media outlets, public universities and public high schools across the country, and storytelling organizations.

Who you calling enemy of the people?

From The Boston Globe editorial, one of more than 300 defending the free press  that ran on the same day, 8/15.  Worth noting that The Daily Free Press, a BU student newspaper, was one of them.

Lies are antithetical to an informed citizenry, responsible for self-governance. The greatness of America is dependent on the role of a free press to speak the truth to the powerful. To label the press “the enemy of the people” is as un-American as it is dangerous to the civic compact we have shared for more than two centuries. 

@niemanfdn @nytmike and @emilysteel from @nytimes about how they’ve covered #SexualHarassment

From a talk Wednesday at Harvard.

Check out their 2017 investigation "Bill O’Reilly Thrives at Fox News, Even as Harassment Settlements Add Up" https://t.co/13NcT5L9zj

Steele said she borrowed from lines in the movie to talk to her sources. Not sure these are the exact lines, but FYI.  sasha 1

 

 

 

More from Spotlight: This follows a delay in the story after 9/11. sasha 2