Today I attended a news conference at which GE announced its "Healthymagination" initiative, a program under which the company will spend $6 billion on health care innovation and technology. What interested me more than the talk of "health IT" and "access" and "quality" was the role NBC Universal will play in all of this, as a subsidiary of GE. Check out these two points mentioned in the press release:

• NBC Universal and News will make a significant commitment to bring timely, actionable health and wellness content to consumers in the form of more than 5,000 televised reports annually on health and wellness and companion online tools.


• MSNBC will launch a new, daily program dedicated solely to health information, beginning in June. The program will be anchored by health expert and NBC News Chief Medical Editor, Dr. Nancy Snyderman. She will tackle everything from health and wellness tips and medical breakthroughs to in-depth looks at health policy.

Before the event's second panel - moderated by the president of NBC News - GE showed a short video hosted by Dr. Snyderman, explaining the sorts of health care issues her show would tackle, including advances in technology...occurring at companies like GE.

Hmmm.

Now, I will be the first to say that prevention is a huge factor in bringing down health care costs, and the media play a very important role in that regard. People need actionable information to make intelligent decisions about their health. I hope we do at least some of that here at NBR.

But does it cross a line when a parent company is encouraging its news outfit to cover more of the parent company's business?

The conflicts of interest inherent in media conglomerates are nothing new. I don't think any of us expects NBC to do an exposé on GE, or for ABC to trash Disney. But on some level I felt a line was crossed today.

I have no doubt that the public will benefit from an increased availability of health care information. But I do wonder what moves like this will mean for the health of the journalism industry, and whether or not this will compromise an already ailing patient.