Gary Schwitzer on Muck Rack

Gary Schwitzer

  • Adjunct Associate Professor, University of Minnesota School of Public Health
Minneapolis, Saint Paul
As seen in: Substack, Taylor & Francis Online, The BMJ, JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association), JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association, The Active Surveillor, MedPage Today, Duluth News Tribune, KevinMD.com, HometownSource and
Covers:  consumer health news, health policy, health care news, health care journalism, medical journalism, health journalism, health, health care, journalism ethics, public health
Health care journalist for 50 yrs. Publisher of HealthNewsReview site, which had a great 16-year run. Now retired but hard to tell from my Substack output.

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Gary Schwitzer’s Biography

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Gary Schwitzer specialized in health care journalism for 50 years in radio, television, interactive multimedia and the Internet.

He was the founder and publisher of HealthNewsReview.org from 2006-2022, once leading a team that grew to 50 people who:

  • evaluated and graded daily health news reporting by major U.S. news organizations.
    evaluated and graded health care news releases from many sources – government agencies, medical journals, industry, academic medical centers, etc.
  • produced a toolki…

Gary Schwitzer’s Journalist Portfolio

Communicating Science in the Time of a Pandemic

Communicating Science in the Time of a Pandemic

Races are underway in parallel: to find answers to perplexing coronavirus questions, to announce research fin…

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Why Bolstering Trust in Journalism Could Help Strengthen Trust in Medicine

Why Bolstering Trust in Journalism Could Help Strengthen Trust in Medicine

Given the many trust issues in today’s information ecosystem, medicine and media need to work together to mak…

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Pollution of health news: Time to drain the swamp

Pollution of health news: Time to drain the swamp

Health news that is fake, sloppy, inaccurate, imbalanced, or incomplete threatens public health, public polic…

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6th time I've called out BMJ news releases on observational studies

6th time I've called out BMJ news releases on observational studies

I do not enjoy this - repeatedly calling out The BMJ for its misleading news releases on observational studie…

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A Guide to Reading Health Care News Stories

A Guide to Reading Health Care News Stories

After 7 years and 1889 stories reviewed by HealthNewsReview.org (approximately 43% newspaper articles, 30% wi…

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Articles

Wrong! RFK Jr. tries to claim credit for obesity rate drop

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By Gary Schwitzer
| Substack
No, RFK Jr. cannot truthfully imply or claim that the Trump administration is responsible for a drop in obesity rates. That’s what NewsGuard’s Reality Check explains in its False Claim of the Week last week after RFK Jr. made this statement - read or heard by millions. How does such a claim spread?
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

What does "linked to" mean from a study?

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By Gary Schwitzer
| Substack
The following stories all appeared in one recent day on Google Health News. “Linked to” can carry a scary message. Or it can convey a hopeful message. There were examples of both types in the images above. Maybe readers who see such links should be neither too scared nor too hopeful. The most consistent take-home message whenever you see that X was linked to Y in a study is that the evidence probably isn’t strong enough yet to prove cause-and-effect.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Men not prepared for PSA tests...& cancer goes to the movies

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By Gary Schwitzer
| Substack
Howard Wolinsky and I are of the same era of health care journalists - more than five decades. But because he was diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer 16 years ago, he now says: “My passion is letting my fellow active surveillance patients know what’s going on.” Active surveillance is what Wolinsky chose to do instead having surgery or any aggressive treatment when he was diagnosed.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?
See all 412 licensed articles (414 Total)

Interview

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What was your first job as a journalist?

WTMJ AM-FM-TV, Milwaukee, writer and film editor

Have you ever used a typewriter?

Yes & I've edited film with hot glue splices. Also manually edited audio tape. But content and ethical journalism matter more than tools.

Who's your favorite fictional journalist?

Actor Albert Brooks playing Aaron Altman in the movie, "Broadcast News."

Awards

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McGovern Award for preeminent contributions to medical communication

2014

Given by the American Medical Medical Writers Association. Past recipients include Anthony Fauci, George Lundberg, John K. Iglehart, Art Caplan, Sherwin Nuland, Jerome Groopman.

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Mirror Award for media industry reporting

2007 - Excellence in Media Information Services

From S.I. Newhouse School at Syracuse University.

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Knight-Batten Award for Innovations in Journalism

2006

The Knight-Batten Awards spotlight the creative use of new information ideas and technologies to involve citizens in public issues. They are administered by J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism at the University of Maryland.

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National Association of Science Writers Science in Society Award

1989

The Science in Society Journalism Awards provide recognition for investigative or interpretive reporting about the sciences and their impact on society and are sponsored by the National Association of Science Writers.

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