CNN Admits Big Pharma Underwrites Programming, Claims Trump HHS Rule Could ‘Cripple’ Network
It’s never a good idea to say the quiet part out loud, particularly in a fit of panic.
Nobody seems to have informed CNN of this, alas. This week, the network published a piece about Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and a new potential suite of regulations HHS might impose on prescription drug ads on television.
The headline? “RFK Jr. wants to crack down on drug ads. That could cripple some broadcasters.”
For decades, pharmaceutical companies have shelled out big bucks to broadcasters to place ads between TV segments. But a pair of policies being considered by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could change that and leave broadcasters in financial straits.
While not an outright ban, the two policies would make it significantly more difficult and expensive for drug companies to push their products across broadcasters’ airwaves, according to a Bloomberg report on Tuesday. The policies look to either mandate that advertisers elaborate on the risks posed by their drugs — forcing ads to be longer and, therefore, more expensive — or bar drugmakers from writing off direct-to-consumer ads as business expenses on their taxes, also padding the bill, Bloomberg reported.
And you might be surprised who this benefits most. Or not.
As CNN noted in the next paragraph, the United States is an outlier inasmuch as it allows prescription drugs to be advertised on national television; most countries prohibit the practice, but American airwaves are saturated with soft-light, soft-focus, slow-motion footage of quinquagenarians with preternatural smiles doing some gardening while a soothing voiceover informs viewers that “rare but possibly serious side effects of Charlatix may include tongue hemorrhages, gangrene, foreign accent syndrome, sentient tonsils with existential crises, late-onset Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy, Cotard’s syndrome, and headache. Tell your doctor about any NASCAR races you may have watched in the past 10 years, as this may lead to further bladder …” etc.