Reading the Travolta and Swayze Tea Leaves
As followers of this blog know, I do not make it a habit to link to my columns in the print or web media. But I will make an exception in this case. Last week, I wrote in this space about the tragic death of Jett Travolta.
As a Fox News contributor, I reported on this death as well as Patrick Swayze’s cancer and pneumonia, just as I have reported on the illnesses of many other celebrities. I have been struck by how often the media distort these health reports, while spokespeople for the celebrity too often use exaggerations or fictions as a smokescreen to protect their client from media scrutiny. This might seem fair, except when you consider how many millions of us role-model our celebs, and even obsess on their health. When we are misinformed about our heroes’ health, we end up mislearning medicine, and an opportunity to inform the public about important health issues that may pertain to them directly is lost.
I am proud of the way I — and my fellow medical journalists at Fox — from our wonderful health editor Dr. Manny to the Ashtons to Keith Ablow to Isadore Rosenfeld, read through the tea leaves as best we can and come up with our best interpretations. We are not these celebrities’ doctors, which necessarily limits our take, and we don’t always have all the facts, but we do the best we can.
Anyway, here is my take in this week’s NY Post, click here.
Dr. Marc Siegel is an internist and associate professor of medicine at the NYU School of Medicine. He is a FOX News medical contributor and writes a health column for LA Times, where he examines TV and movies for medical accuracy. Dr. Siegel is the author of “False Alarm: The Truth about the Epidemic of Fear
Tags: Ashtons, celebrities, Dr. Manny Alvarez, FOX News, illness, Jett Travolta, John Travolta, medical journalist, Patrick Swayze
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Dear Dr. Siegel,
I just read your article on the NY Post, and you wrote:
“… flacks serve what they see as their clients’ interests – not the public, and not the truth.
“The tragic death of teen Jett Travolta was a prime example. … the family’s statements linking the child’s untimely death with … Kawasaki’s disease were also misleading.”
I followed the Jett Travolta story pretty closely, and I never heard a single “family statement” (or publicist or Travolta spokesperson statement) linking Jett’s seizures and/or death with Kawasaki disease.
While John Travolta and Kelly Preston did make public statements about Jett’s Kawasaki disease as a toddler, they never once linked Jett’s seizures (or his death) with his early case of Kawasaki disease. It was simply speculated upon by the media, and then took on a life of its own.
While your point about misinformation from the media and spokespeople is well taken, you might want to consider correcting the record about what you claimed were the Travolta spokespeoples’ statements.