Daily Inspiration Quote by Mort Kondracke

Kondracke’s sentence does a neat, slightly chilly two-step: first puncturing the balloon of medical hype, then offering a careful, almost obligatory nod to industry effort. That rhythm matters. “Stories get hyped” shifts the blame away from scientists and onto the storytelling ecosystem - news cycles, PR shops, even patients hungry for miracles. It’s not just skepticism; it’s media criticism disguised as common sense.

The line “medicines are not quite as revolutionary and as dramatic as they seem to be” is doing reputational triage. Kondracke isn’t denying progress; he’s downgrading its cinematic packaging. “Revolutionary” and “dramatic” are deliberately showbiz adjectives, suggesting that what gets sold to the public is less clinical reality than narrative: breakthroughs, heroes, overnight cures. His diction implies that medicine, in practice, moves by increments - better outcomes, fewer side effects, longer remissions - but incrementalism doesn’t headline well.

Then comes the diplomatic pivot: “But, certainly…” The concession signals journalistic balance while also revealing the pressure to appear fair when talking about pharmaceutical companies. “Various phases of this problem” is notably vague, implying complexity while avoiding a specific claim that could be challenged. And “being attacked” borrows the language of war - a familiar frame that flatters corporate R&D as purposeful combat, even as the earlier clauses warn us not to confuse the battle plan with victory.

The subtext: believe in progress, distrust the pitch. The context is an era when pharma’s promises, media amplification, and public desperation formed a feedback loop - and Kondracke is trying to interrupt it without sounding anti-science.