Dennis Byrne of the Chicago Tribune has a terrific column exposing the utter propagandistic approach taken by the MSM in reporting on stem cells. A remarkable advance has taken place with a pateint named Hwang in Korea, with stem cells. But they are not embryonic stem cells, so the story has been ignored:

...the stem cells used in Hwang's therapy were from umbilical cord blood instead of embryos. Why should that make a difference? Because if you favor embryonic stem cells, you are a smart, loving person. But if you favor cord cells, you are a Luddite. If you want to avoid the ethical, moral or religious difficulties posed by killing embryonic human life or by creating it solely for the purpose of prospecting, you are a cruel person who would let people suffer and die from horrible, painful diseases or injuries. Same goes for advocates of "adult" stem cells extracted harmlessly and without any ethical problems from living tissues of adults and children. In short: Good guys equal embryonic stem cells; bad guys equal adult and cord stem cells.

Unfortunately for Bush—haters, conservative bashers and others who have canonized embryonic stem—cell therapy, Hwang's miracle was pulled off with cord therapy——news that a biased media would prefer to ignore. I find it hard to believe that media bias explains such a news brownout, but what else could? Media ignorance on a stunningly massive scale about the significance of Hwang's cure? Or near—universal journalistic skepticism about the validity of the claims?

Ed Lasky   12 6 04