Is “churnalism” taking over medical reporting?

For five years, Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview.org has rated health coverage on 10 measures of balance, bias, and handling of costs and benefits. Now, he's put out a report card showing long-term improvement, offset by more stories relying solely on news releases. The findings were published on PLoS Blogs after being rejected by an unidentified journal, Schwitzer notes: “The editors thought the term 'churnalism' felt like media bashing.”