Journalism Ethics and the Goldwater Rule in a "Post-Truth" Media World.

This article strongly supports the Goldwater Rule, a position arrived at through an exploration of journalism ethics and practice norms for reporting on public figures, and justified by three claims. First, there is a seldom-acknowledged contradiction in ethics when it comes to journalistic reporting on public figures, one that is increasingly difficult to navigate in the current media climate. Second, the goal of informing and educating the public through offering a professional opinion about the mental health of public figures is often misaligned with the realities of journalistic storytelling. Third, there are ways to inform and educate the public about mental health and public figures that do not violate the Goldwater Rule.

"Might" or "suggest"? No wording approach was clearly superior in conveying the strength of recommendation.

OBJECTIVE: To compare different wording approaches for conveying the strength of health care recommendations. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: Participants were medical residents in Canada and the United States. We randomized them to one of three wording approaches, each expressing two strengths of recommendation, strong and weak: (1) "we recommend," "we suggest;" (2) "clinicians should," "clinicians might;" (3) "we recommend," "we conditionally recommend." Each participant received one strong and one weak recommendation. For each recommendation, they chose a hypothetical course of action; we judged whether their choice was appropriate for the strength of the recommendation. RESULTS: The response rate was 77% (341/441). Most participants, in response to strong recommendations, chose hypothetical courses of action appropriate for weak recommendations. None of the wording approaches was clearly superior in conveying the strength of a recommendation. However, different approaches appeared superior depending on the strength and direction (for or against an intervention) of the recommendation. CONCLUSION: No wording approach was clearly superior in conveying the strength of recommendation. Guideline developers need to make the connection between the wording and their intended strength explicit.