Wheels with Ed Wallace Inflames Instead of Informs with Merck Pill Coverage
2021 October 19

The Second Hand News (SHN) segment of the October 16, 2021 edition of Wheels with Ed Wallace exhibited another instance of Wallace employing reporting skills that must have been acquired at the Emily Litella School of Journalism. Wallace spins news narratives in a manner to build the most outrage within the audience, only to drop a fact at the tail of the story which deflates the whole thing. It’s the Ed Wallace variation of the Litella “never mind".

This time, Wallace was reporting on Merck's new COVID pill. It costs $17.74 to manufacture, but Merck will charge $712. Wallace ponders ♫ how was it that Martin Shkreli was jailed for hiking the price of a drug by 56 times, but the Merck CEO is not jailed for hiking the price of this new drug by 40 times. Then, Wallace continues by declaring that his prior assertion was fiction. Martin Shkreli was jailed for securities fraud, not for predatory drug pricing. “Oh. I'm sorry. Never mind."

Wallace’s coverage of a Peloton recall followed the same Litella reporting formula. It’s a radio form of click bait, where the headline does not match the article’s content.

As for Emily Litella’s thoughts on this matter:

Emily Litella: Ed Wallace Wheels Smirk Pill

Emily Litella: Ed Wallace Wheels Overpriced Rugs

It just goes to show you. When it comes to Ed Wallace, it’s always something. If it’s not one thing, it’s another. In other words, just another representative instance of Wallace’s Sleight of Hand News.