FDA back to its old tricks, trying to turn reporters into stenographers

The FDA, it would appear, is back to old tricks that it claimed it had ended in 2011.

This weekend, in a column titled “When Sources Set The Ground Rules,” New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan highlighted an unusual sentence in a story that had appeared in the paper:

Speedy news: Embargo on Ivy Leaguers and ADHD drugs study lifted early after New Republic breaks it

When I was a student at an Ivy League institution in Cambridge, Mass., the only drugs I used were caffeine and alcohol. Apparently, today’s Ivy Leaguers are using ADHD drugs as study aids.

That news is out early — with some extra speed, you might say — thanks to an embargo break by The New Republic. From an American Academy of Pediatrics note to media sent a little while ago: