Michele Bachmann, Wrong Again

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) | Flickr/<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/70254121@N00/2961554377/">the Original Jeff Martin</a> (<a href="http://www.creativecommons.org">Creative Commons</a>).

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The indispensable PolitiFact.com has a great story about how Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) tried to claim that an unscientific email survey conducted by “the Medicus Firm, a physicians recruiting service” was actually “released” by the prominent and well-regarded New England Journal of Medicine. The survey (remember, it was unscientific) found that 22 percent of respondents “would try to retire early” and 8 percent “would try to leave medical practice even if not near retirement age” if health care reform without a public option was passed. Bachmann characterized that as a survey “released” by NEJM that found that  “over 30 percent of American physicians would leave the profession if the government took over health care.” NEJM, of course, doesn’t publish or peer-review unscientific email surveys:

[Medicus] wrote an article about the survey results, which was first published on the firm’s Web site. The article was later reprinted in Recruiting Physicians Today, an advertising newsletter put out on the NEJM’s Career Center Web site. The Medicus Firm neither paid to have the article published, nor was it paid for the article.

It was never published in the actual New England Journal of Medicine.

But it’s easy to see how someone might have been confused. Although the small print explains that the survey was done by the Medicus Firm, the article prominently states at the top, “From the publishers of the New England Journal of Medicine” and carries the NEJM seal.

There are two lessons here. One is that the all publications have to be very careful about how they attach their names to advertising supplements and promotional inserts. Readers need to be able to easily distinguish advertising from actual editorial content.

The second lesson is that no matter how careful you are, someone will probably find a way to misrepresent the truth. Bachmann’s spokesman told PolitiFact that all this is really NEJM’s fault, but that’s a bit too precious. The NEJM put a disclaimer on its website explaining that the survey didn’t represent its views a full 10 days before Bachmann made her claim to the contrary. Even if you accept Bachmann’s explanation that the confusion about the survey’s source is NEJM’s fault, that’s not the only problem with her statement. As PolitiFact emphasized, Bachmann didn’t simply get the source of the survey wrong. She also “sensationalize[d]” the results. Some people just can’t handle the truth.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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