NBC’s Dr. Nancy Snyderman: Yet Another Medico Who, in Her “Arrogance and Dismissiveness” Flagrantly Ignored Voluntary Ebola Quarantine (She Worked with Ebola Cameraman Ashoka Mukpo), Dodged Responsibility, Had to be Put Under Forced Quarantine, Has Lost Credibility and is Under Non-Suspension Suspension; NBC News Honcho Hopes Dodge Will Make Public Forget Doc’s Negligence by November; ABC Health Editor Dr. Richard Besser was Equally Arrogant, in Refusing to Quarantine Himself After Visit to Ebola Zone

 

 

'Quarantines are for the little people': NBC News' chief medical editor, Dr. Nancy Snyderman, above; below, ABC News health editor Dr. Richard Besser
 

 

Re-posted by Nicholas Stix
 

Dr. Nancy Snyderman Encouraged to Take a Break from NBC News
By Bill Carter
Oct. 23, 2014
New York Times

NBC News appears to be looking for time and the intrusion of other news stories to tamp down negative attention that has surrounded its chief medical editor, Dr. Nancy Snyderman, following news that she violated a self-imposed quarantine after being potentially exposed to Ebola in Liberia.

The network’s news president, Deborah Turness, issued a memo to staff members on Wednesday that included the announcement that Dr. Snyderman would take a break from her duties. (The network subsequently emphasized that this move was not a suspension.)

Ms. Turness told the staff that the longtime medical journalist had finished her 21-day quarantine and was symptom free, but that she and those who had traveled with her to Liberia had been encouraged to “take some time with their families and friends to help restore some normalcy to their lives.” Ms. Turness said they would return “next month.”

She couched that decision in positive terms, saying the news organization would “look forward” to that return. And she pointedly praised Dr. Snyderman’s work on the Ebola outbreak as “first class, firsthand reporting from the front lines of this tragic and monumental story.”

 

Critics took Dr. Nancy Snyderman to task after news reports that she was seen outside her home during a self-imposed quarantine for possible exposure to Ebola. Credit Peter Kramer/NBC, via Associated Press

Critics in the media and in some health care circles had taken Dr. Snyderman to task when news reports said she had been seen outside her home in New Jersey during the period when she had said she would restrict her public activities. State health officials in New Jersey quickly imposed a mandatory quarantine on her. In a subsequent statement, Dr. Snyderman did not directly acknowledge that she violated the voluntary quarantine, but said instead that “members of our group” had.

In an Associated Press story this week, Kelly McBride, a co-author of “The New Ethics of Journalism: Principles for the 21st Century” who comments on journalism ethics for the Poynter Institute, said that in the future “some news consumers are going to see the woman who put others at risk, rather than the reporter and professional with great experience.”

At the same time, many NBC executives and staff members spoke highly of Dr. Snyderman, whose career in network news began at ABC 25 years ago. (She joined NBC News in 2006.)

The move this week to reduce her profile could also be seen as a plan to keep her out of the public eye until the Ebola crisis has subsided and other news has seized public attention. On Wednesday, the attack on the Canadian Parliament dropped the Ebola stories out of the lead position in most news reports, and next week the midterm elections are expected to be the biggest story.
 

NBC's Snyderman Faces Credibility Issues
20 Oct 2014
NewsMax

The quarantine against possible Ebola exposure ends this week for Dr. Nancy Snyderman, but the troubles clearly aren't over for NBC News' chief medical editor.

An admitted lapse in the quarantine, combined with a curiously imprecise explanation, unleashed a furious response. NBC must now decide whether Snyderman's credibility is too damaged for her to continue reporting on Ebola or other medical issues and, if so, for how long. The network would not comment.

Snyderman, who spent 17 years as a medical correspondent for ABC News and has been at NBC since 2006, covered the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and worked briefly with Ashoka Mukpo, the cameraman who caught the virus and is now being treated in Nebraska. Upon returning to the United States, Snyderman and her crew voluntarily agreed to quarantine themselves for 21 days, the longest known incubation period for the disease. They have shown no symptoms.

Yet New Jersey health officials ruled that her quarantine should be mandatory after Snyderman and her crew were spotted getting takeout food from a New Jersey restaurant. [My emphasis.]

NBC won't give details about who actually went into the restaurant, or even how many of its employees are being quarantined. Snyderman issued a [dishonest] statement saying "members of our group" violated their pledge.

More than 1,100 people have subsequently written on Snyderman's Facebook page, many expressing anger. There were suggestions she should be fired or lose her medical license, and some viewers said they wouldn't trust her again. Snyderman's failure to be more specific about the lapse or take greater responsibility was another flashpoint.

Snyderman's "arrogance and dismissiveness" create a huge PR and credibility problem for NBC, said Kelly McBride, an expert on ethics for the journalism think tank the Poynter Institute.

"People are so freaked out about Ebola that the problem NBC has now is that whenever they put her on the air, some news consumers are going to see the woman who put others at risk, rather than the reporter and professional with great experience," McBride said.

McBride suggested that Snyderman "lay low" or take a leave of absence. Certainly she should not report on Ebola anymore for the network, she said.

[Here comes a big, hot, heaping serving of b.s. by a political ally of Snyderman.]

Susan Dentzer, a longtime health journalist and commentator for National Public Radio and the PBS "NewsHour," said people shouldn't forget that Snyderman put herself at risk to travel to Africa and cover the story. [So, her putting herself at risk gives her license to put the public here at risk?] The public is reacting to a fear of Ebola instead of science, she said. [Fear of Ebola is rational, like fearing snakes, and the notion that people are not reacting to science is Big Lie that Obama supporters have used, as the latter lie about science.]

"She and her team clearly should have observed the terms of their quarantine, and she has said clearly that they made a mistake," Dentzer said. "But let's put it in a broader perspective."

[There is no “broader perspective.” No ifs, ands, or “but(s).”]

Before Snyderman's trip for takeout, ABC News' medical expert arguably had bigger problems. ABC health editor Dr. Richard Besser was in Africa at the same time as Snyderman and did not quarantine himself upon his return. That led ABC News President James Goldston to send his staff a memo explaining that the network was following medical advice.

Still, Besser was disinvited to a speaking engagement at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, he wrote last week in the Washington Post. Some colleagues have avoided him.

"I've been surprised by how many colleagues have waved from across the room and quickly made an exit," Besser wrote. "Others won't enter my office."

NBC could face a competitive disadvantage if Snyderman is taken off medical stories. Robert Bazell, the network's longtime health and science correspondent, left last year to teach at Yale.

An important first step for Snyderman will be to explain to viewers exactly what happened, perhaps on a venue like the "Today" show, said Bill Wheatley, a longtime NBC executive who now teaches journalism at Columbia University.

"If she and the network are more forthcoming about the whole matter, I believe that her credibility can be preserved," Wheatley said.