| Abstrakt: |
The question addressed in this small book is whether the media have fairly covered the scientific picture with respect to the artificial sweetener debate. To consider this question, the author concentrated on a few of the most powerful media outlets that serve a large national audience: two newspapers, The New York Times and The Washington Post; two major news weeklies, Time and Newsweek; and the three largest national television networks.The primary focus is the debate concerning aspartame, but previous controversies about saccharin and cyclamate also are examined in an attempt to determine whether media coverage has followed any special pattern and whether the coverage has improved. The history up to the present and the most important elements in the scientific debate about each of the sweeteners are summarized. Because the book is written by a nonscientist for the purpose of critiquing journalists, evaluation of scientific judgments concerning the individual |
