Two weeks ago this column traced connections between advertising by pharmaceutical companies and a rash of credibility problems at leading medical science journals.
Prescription drugs are the fastest-growing advertising category in the developed world.
This drug money is becoming an importance source of revenue for mainstream publications that can deliver relatively sophisticated audiences. That includes The New Yorker , which consistently publishes the best serious political, social and business writing in North America. It also has a long-standing reputation for thoughtful and engaging science pieces. That reputation is now in decline, and the fact that this coincides with growing pharmaceutical advertising revenue has set some tongues wagging. Slipping standards at The New Yorker were first exposed in the May issue of the media watchdog magazine Brill's Content by Paul Brodeur.