Journalists go to school?

Among biased and partisan newspapers, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is as biased and partisan as they come, but it is even less literate than, say, the over-rated New York Times or the loathesome Washington Post.
Here is a headline in the AJC, 1 May 2006: "Georgia's season of unhealthy air."
Since we all need and appreciate air, I was sorry to learn it was ill.
I wondered if it was ill because of allergies, hence the "season" in the headline, or if it was ill because it had caught some kind of flu -- and avian flu would seem very likely since air, at least around here, is just full of birds.
Or, I suddenly realized, perhaps it was unhealthy because of an accident.
No, it was none of the above. It turned out the air was not really unhealthy; it was not destined to be hospitalized, or even to have to go to a clinic or a doctor's office.
No, the air was merely a victim of semi-literate "editors."
What the raggedy "news"paper should have said was that the air was "unhealthful," that it was allegedly full of pollutants, such as, perhaps, the fog emitted by semi-literate writers and editors.
Like the good, mind-numbed robots so prevalent throughout the "news" media, the AJC is in lock-step with the drumbeat against "the epidemic of obesity," and shrieks in horror that school-age young'uns have -- well, "had," since today, 4 May, there seems to be a new decree -- access to such poison as (gasp) Coca-Cola -- which, interestingly enough, was born and bred in Atlanta.
Yet that those same children are being fed a terrible education does not seem to matter very much. There are no shrieking "news" stories or editorials decrying the poison being fed in the guise of "facts" and information from the government schools.
And why should it? If those kids really did learn to read and write, they would never subscribe to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

I'm from the FDA and I'm here to help

FDA says, "no way, man" to marijuana, but here is a story about a drug the FDA said "Oh, yes" to.

FDA probing death linked to new antibiotic

Other cases of severe liver damage reported in patients taking drug

Updated: 12:37 p.m. ET Jan. 20, 2006

WASHINGTON - Researchers reported Friday three cases of severe liver problems, including one death, in patients at a North Carolina hospital after they began taking a novel antibiotic.

Federal regulators said they were reviewing an unknown number of U.S. cases involving the drug, telithromycin, and were consulting with their counterparts overseas.

One patient at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C., died after taking telithromycin, which is marketed as Ketek, researchers at the hospital said. Another required and received a liver transplant, while the third recovered from drug-induced hepatitis after treatment with Ketek was stopped.

Kettle calls pot black

Big news: FDA won't admit marijuana has any medical benefits.
Here is part of one version of the news story:

WASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that it does not support the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

The FDA said in a statement that it and other agencies with the Health and Human Services Department had "concluded that no sound scientific studies supported medical use of marijuana for treatment in the United States, and no animal or human data supported the safety or efficacy of marijuana for general medical use."

A number of states have passed legislation allowing marijuana use for medical purposes, but the FDA said, "These measures are inconsistent with efforts to ensure that medications undergo the rigorous scientific scrutiny of the FDA approval process and are proven safe and effective."

The statement contradicts a 1999 finding from the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences, which reported that "marijuana's active components are potentially effective in treating pain, nausea, the anorexia of AIDS wasting and other symptoms, and should be tested rigorously in clinical trials."

Hypocrite-in-chief Bill Clinton had a "Drug Czar" who was an accused war criminal (during the war against Serbia) who frequently made the claim that the government (meaning the federal one) had never accepted there were any medical benefits in marijuana.

Following is, in contrast, a minor news item from 2001, as reported by the Associated Press.

MEDICINAL POT PIONEER ROBERT RANDALL DIES IN HIS HOME JUNE 2, 2001 – Robert Randall, who made history in 1976 when a court gave him access to government supplies of marijuana to treat his glaucoma, died at his home of AIDS-related complications. He was 53. A federal court ruled 25 years ago that Randall's use of marijuana was a medical necessity. Two years later the government cut off his access to marijuana. Randall sued for reinstatement of the drug and won. He kept on smoking pot with federal permission until his death.