The controversy began in November 1990, when CBS? "Eye to Eye with Connie Chung" charged that Dow Corning (a breast implant manufacturer) were callously marketing a dangerous product. Chung?s broadcast featured emotional testimony from women who blamed their implants for compromising their immune systems and creating a variety of painful and even life-threatening ailments. The ensuing uproar led to high-profile Congressional hearings which created their own storm of controversy.
Faced with a full-fledged media feeding frenzy, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler effectively banned silicone implants from the marketplace. Class-action lawsuits were filed against manufacturers, and the Dow Corning Corp. withdrew from the market and was forced into bankruptcy. The settlements paid to plaintiffs ran into billions of dollars, with many claims still outstand
During the first two years of the controversy, the coverage averaged 18 stories per month at a dozen major news outlets, peaking at 90 stories when the FDA banned implants in April 1992. Thereafter the coverage dropped by nearly 60 percent, at precisely the time that the evidence began to contradict the earlier charges. This early phase of the coverage was also the most negative toward the implants and Dow Corning. Five out of every six evaluations that were aired or printed were negative.
Many reporters were not willing to wait for all the facts to come out on a story that proved too bad to be true. Then, a series of hearings and lawsuits framed the story as a moral narrative with good guys (victimized consumers) and bad guys (Dow Corning). That proved to irresistible for reporters who took the opportunity to defend the public interest against corporate profits. But in this case,
Example Essays Home
