Susan writes:

>
>What I find troubling is either the scientists were incredibly naive 
>in how they thought the news media would respond -- which was with 
>the typical over the top scare story that went well beyond anything 
>actually said in the review --- or naive about what some of those 
>companies that sponsored their research would SPIN this to the news 
>media.


I really don't think formula manufacturers are behind the world-wide 
spread of this story.

They don't *need* to be. The effect of this story was *entirely predictable* .

The story sells itself - 'orthodoxy about breastfeeding challenged' 
is enough to light the bluetouch paper.

There are two 'pushes' inherent in the story:

* the media *love* anything that challenges perceived orthodoxy about 
lifestyle. So, for example, anything that says 'eating less and 
exercising more is not the right way to lose weight' will get a lot 
of coverage.

* many people working in the media have had truly awful breastfeeding 
experiences or who know people who have. They use formula. 
They(naturally)  dislike the idea that somehow they are exposing 
their children to risk or that they or their children are missing an 
important experience. So they are defensive about formula and one way 
of expressing this is to seize on any story that  belittles 
breastfeeding.

(I don't think working in the media predisposes you to have a bad 
breastfeeding epxerience, BTW. I don't suppose it's worse than 
anywhere else. )

Put those two pushes together and WOW what a story.  It's this that 
leads to ridiculous headlines (as we have had in the UK) such as 
'mothers' milk may do more harm than good' and 'Breast is Not Best' 
and 'breastfeeding for too long may lead to obesity' .

It also has the added abilty to be blown up into a great 'scare' 
story, which is something else the media love.

The authors have back-pedalled (a bit) - 
http://www.gosh.nhs.uk/pressoffice/pressrelease_00899.

To no one's surprise, this last statement has not received much 
coverage at all....whereas the original paper has gone round the 
world three times and is still going.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK


-- 
http://www.heatherwelford.co.uk

http://heatherwelford.posterous.com

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