News not fit to print

Newspaper’s silence on lawsuits
may go beyond the Capital Region

By David Baker

This item first appeared here on August 5, 2007

A search of newspaper Web sites in cities in Texas, California and Washington state suggests that the Albany Times Union may not be the only Hearst Corp.-owned paper to ignore medical malpractice lawsuits.

A check of the achieves of its papers in San Antonio, San Francisco and Seattle has found no stories about claims against hospitals or doctors.

As was first reported here almost three years ago, the Times Union hasn’t reported such stories since the late 1990s, while at the same time running hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of advertising during that time for the area’s hospitals.

So it is a Hearst Newspapers policy to suppress claims of medical harm filed against its advertisers? Stay tuned.

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