Media coverage of stem cell research (very) slowly improving

New research suggests that pluripotent stem cells – the kind that can develop into multiple tissues – might be found in amniotic fluid. This adds to placentas and a patient’s own tissues as sources of cells that can be grown to use in treatment for diseases such as various cancers, and are actually in clinical trials now (as opposed to those better-known stem cell sources). But the amniotic fluid news was only reported in Chicago’s right-leaning Sun-Times, unlikely to penetrate the national media consciousness. I look into the factors behind the low reporting of such health developments and what it says about longstanding models of newsworthiness and reporters’ assumptions. I get a little heated in my writing, so I fully expect flaming – but please argue intelligently as well as brutally.