Naming and Praising Update- August 2001
'Named and Praised': Anna Whitney. A SIRC Naming and Praising Award goes to Anna Whitney of the Independent, for her article on a new treatment for Alzheimer's Disease. Actually, the sub-editor or whoever wrote the headline deserves praise as well – the headline "Scientists hope new Alzheimer's treatment will slow progress of disease" is admirably calm and does not raise false hopes. Anna Whitney then manages to get three significant caveats into the very first paragraph. Her piece begins "Trials of a new treatment that might one day slow the progress of Alzheimer's disease have begun on a 60-year-old woman after scientists succeeded in reversing the effects of the condition in mice." [our italics] She emphasises these caveats again, and gives details of further potential obstacles, in paragraphs 6-10. The article offers some hope, but does not create false expectations of a 'miracle cure'. Textbook stuff.
