The Media Drop

WebMD’s public editor, Robert Davis, PhD, responded Monday to comments sent in by the site’s visitors, specifically regarding an article about mercury fillings being offered by dentists. Davis points out that while WebMD could have been “more skeptical” about some of the information it used in the article, there wasn’t a need to offer “equal time” to people who were on the other side of the issue, outside of having inputs about their beliefs about the fillings and their health risks - because of the “weight” carried by the medical findings on the subject. He concludes by pointing out that no matter who you would ask, it would end up that he was biased, because the readers of the article (or any article, really) would have different perceptions on what was being written about.