MARILYN PENN: COMPARATIVE HEALTH DANGERS IN THE NEW YORK TIMES
http://politicalmavens.com/index.php/2013/11/28/comparative-health-dangers-in-the-new-york-times/
The NYTimes of Nov 27th devoted one and a quarter pages of text and an oversized, inflammatory front page picture of an Israeli’s woman’s breast revealing a scar and the top of her nipple under a tattooed Star of David. The shorthand association reads: Israel, Jews, cancer. Is this another disease caused by the same people who brought on the black plague in the middle ages? Has Bibi spurred the spread of breast cancer? Is this a further extension of Israeli occupation? By contrast, there is no photograph of a partially exposed penis accompanying the story on page 4 of the NYT of Nov 28th concerning the rapid rise of unprotected sex among gay American men. The Times tiptoes through the statistics saying only that the rate of unprotected sex had risen 20% from 2005 – 2011 and that infection rates are highest among young black gay men. Here are some of the statistics that the Times didn’t include in this delicate treatment of a disturbing subject.
Though blacks represent only 13% of the U.S. population, they account for more than 50% of new cases of HIV – 8 times the rate of whites. Black women are 19 times more likely to have HIV than white women. According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control & Prevention), as of 2009, more than a million people in the US were infected with HIV out of which half had AIDS. Genital herpes increases the susceptibility to HIV – as of 2009, 48% of black women and 39% of black men were infected with genital herpes. AIDS infection is 5 times more prevalent inside prison than outside and black men represent 40% of all inmates in America. THE SINGLE LEADING CAUSE OF CONTRACTING HIV IS UNPROTECTED SEX WITH A MAN. These statistics suggest than HIV/AIDS pose an enormous problem for the black community and the entire country yet the Times devoted only four skimpy columns on page 4 to the alarming news that the rate of the leading cause of HIV has risen 20% in only six years.
Readers should be concerned about the disparity in the Times coverage of serious health issues. Only between 5 – 10% of breast cancers are linked to genetic causes, a tiny fraction of the problem faced by American women, particularly tiny since the BRCA genes covered in the article on 11/27 affect mainly Ashkenazi Jews, an even tinier population within our country. Of interest, in its editorial today, the Times called for more money to be spent on world-wide AIDS – it endorses the figure of 15 billion dollars which the Global Fund to Fight AIDS hopes to raise, largely from the U.S. One would have thought that the most significant factor contributing to the spread of a disease that costs us many billions of dollars home and abroad would have warranted a front page story, illustrated with a large picture of one of its victims. But given the choice between that and any story with Israel in the title, the Times chose predictably. The old grey lady got its nickname for having a higher ratio of copy to graphics. With the publication of that partially bared Jewish breast, we learned that the Times is resolved to live down that old reputation and aim for something cheaper and lower. It succeeded.
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