Beloved Jeopardy! host, Alex Trebek received encouraging news from doctors recently, who explained to that him his stage-four pancreatic cancer was “near remission.”
In an interview with People Magazine, Trebek credited his healing–in part–to the millions of people who “expressed their good thoughts, their positive energy and their prayers.”
Sadly–but not surprisingly–NBC News omitted the popular host’s comments about prayers helping his healing process.
Last week, Trebek told People, “The doctors said that they hadn’t seen this kind of positive result in their memory. Some of the tumors have already shrunk by more than 50 percent.” He adds, “it’s kind of mind-boggling. I’ve already gone from where I was to this. The doctors are so excited, just beside themselves with joy.”
He continued, “I told the doctors, this has to be more than just chemo. I’ve had a couple million people out there who expressed their good thoughts, their positive energy and their prayers. The doctors said it could very well be an important part of this.”
It’s worth noting that during a March episode of Jeopardy!, Trebek announced his cancer diagnosis and told viewers, “With the help of your prayers also, I plan to beat the low survival rate statistics for this disease.”
So, how did NBC report on Trebek’s good news?
Newsbusters writes:
Now let’s look at NBC’s edits. Correspondent Joe Fryer played the same soundbite of Trebek’s vow. But in this one, the NBC reporter spoke over the prayer part so it sounded like this: “I plan to beat the low survival rate statistics for this disease.” And so the edit stood out in the video provided.
Next came the part where Fryer skipped over Trebek’s credits in the People magazine piece: “He tells People, “I’ve got a couple million people out there who have expressed good thoughts… I told the doctors this has to be more than just the chemo.” For Trebek, that support is part of the answer.”
CBS’s Margaret Brennan ignored Trebek’s comments altogether and simply reported:
There was some encouraging news today from Alex Trebek. The host of Jeopardy! says his doctors tell him that his stage-four pancreatic cancer is in, quote, “near remission.” In an interview with People magazine, Trebek calls the prognosis “mind-boggling” but says he has several more rounds of chemotherapy to go before he’s declared to be in full remission.
