David Shulkin, M.D., undersecretary of health for the Department of Veterans Affairs, faced two challenges at his Newsmaker Briefing on Friday morning.

He had to compete with a free breakfast buffet with fruit, eggs, bacon, ham, pastries, oatmeal, potatoes and more (thanks, Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation).

And there was this page-one, above-the-fold headline in USA Today: “VA bosses falsified veterans’ wait times.” Continue reading →

Joanne Silberner (@jsilberner) is a freelance reporter and artist-in-residence at the University of Washington in Seattle. For 18 years, she covered health issues for NPR. She is attending Health Journalism 2015 as an AHCJ-Academic Health Journalism Fellow.