For many years I have read the Wall Street Journal. As far back as the days I lived in Levittown, NY and rode the commuter train (late 1970's) to work. You had to make sure that you didn't touch your good clothes after reading the paper because the ink came off on your hands (probably some deadly combination of lead and carbon...).
The Journal was good for news: no videos, no cartoons, no nonsense - something that you worked hard to read and understand... Kind of like the old Forbes magazine - a hefty tome in the 1970's it took days of ardent effort to slog through the detailed, precise reporting. And well worth the effort, too...
But all this appears to be changing.
Lately the WSJ is full of videos and silly reporting.
One that comes to mind is the recent FDA/Theranos "disaster" where the WSJ has reported on a variety of "misdeeds" by Theranos in its quest to change the face of medical testing forever.
Here's the FDA list of
problems.
A while back the WSJ reported various "problems" at Theranos and that the FDA was there for a "surprise inspection." The implications, of course, were that there were festering problems...
You can see Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos, a woman who, gasp, left college, to found this company, defend rational behavior.
WSJ Video
If you watch you whole video you'll get a good idea of what's going on.
Today the WSJ published a post on "deficiencies" listed by the FDA (see
this).
Theranos isn't even a
public company.
So why does the WSJ care so much?
Its really hard to tell - why is this news?
Not enough "feel good" videos to post?
This is a simple product in the sense that its just a pin-prick of blood. Then they run tests and tell you the results.
Not too complex.
Theranos runs the tests elsewhere - not attached to you - so all you are doing is putting a drop of blood into a slim, small, shallow "needle." My dog steps on my foot and draws hundreds of times more blood - maybe he's a medical device...?
Of course, the real magic is that they don't need vials full of blood - no doubt leading to the demise of many well established industry leaders - which is why there's so much "trouble..."
And for the FDA, well a small container is a "medical device" apparently. It needs testing and tracking and all the rest.
Theranos isn't the only strange WSJ target...
They don't like e-cigarettes too much either (they simply ignore them).
Another game changer,
millions of people no longer using "combustion tobacco" and the WSJ just yawns.
No doubt e-cigs represent too much of a change for the established "big tobacco" folks.
I find this all very sad.
The FDA, the WSJ, all out to kill off the betterment of mankind...
Do you really think the kind of container you put the blood in, as long as its clean of course, really matters?
After all, people shoot heroin for years and don't necessarily suffer from "unclean" equipment.
Clearly the FDA should be worried about cars, they kill a lot of people and they transport medical patients - perhaps in a dangerous way. Ace bandages, bandaids, who know what sort of lethal problems could arise...
Food is another problem - vitamins, mineral, supplements. Fortunately there are laws that are supposed to all us to use those... (well, sort of, as long as no one wants to step in and lie they way to changing the truth.
Soon, I guess, there will be yet another subscription to cancel.
I can always watch news videos on YouTube - I don't need an expensive WSJ subscription for that.
