Although the vast majority of print media publications failed to give Harris’s use of Luvox the attention it deserved, a few admirably bucked the trend.  This analysis now addresses the coverage provided by magazines with high and low susceptibility to advertiser influence. [Methodology]

Magazines considered to have high susceptibility to advertiser influence included Time and Newsweek.  Over four percent of these weekly national publications’ content consists of pharmaceutical advertisements.  Following the general media trend, Time and Newsweek devoted many pages to the Littleton incident, examining the same variety of possible explanations as newspapers.  Time even devoted an entire issue to examining the Internet and computer games as possible causes of teen violence.  As expected, however, the high advertisement publications failed to note the significance of Eric Harris’s taking Luvox.  Only two of Newsweek’s 51 articles about Littleton mentioned the drug.  Three of Time’s 27 articles mentioned it.  Four of these five articles simply noted that Harris had been taking Luvox for mental problems without referring to it as a possible cause of his violent behavior.  These mentions were buried in the text, not prominently placed at the beginning or end of the article, as were speculations about other possible causes.  The fifth article, in Time, was somewhat misleadingly entitled “Beyond Depression: What Do Those “Mood Drugs” Really Do?” The quotation marks around “mood drugs” and use of the word “really” in the headline suggest an article skeptical of psychotropic drugs. On the contrary, the article describes SSRIs as “broadly useful” while listing several of their known benefits but none of their known side effects.  More disturbingly, the author asserts that “there is no evidence that SSRIs themselves cause violent behavior.”  This statement was notable not only because it was untrue but because it was part of a sentence about supposed “earlier . . . attempts to link Luvox to the Colorado school shootings.” In fact, Time never attempted to link Luvox to the Colorado school shootings. Nor, as previously discussed, did almost any other media outlet. Although it is impossible to prove intent, the mysterious mention of these “previous attempts,” in conjunction with the claim that SSRIs have not been proven to cause violence, could only serve to insulate readers against any such arguments they might encounter in the future. The high advertisement magazines either obscured Luvox’s role in the shootings or ignored it altogether.

In contrast to the spotty and misleading treatment Time and Newsweek gave Harris’ use of Luvox, the publications chosen for having low susceptibility to advertiser influence used forceful language that directly implicated psychotropic drugs as a potential cause of both the Littleton shootings and other well-publicized incidents of violence. One of the nine articles about Littleton in Insight on the News suggested Luvox as a causal factor in the shooting.  The word “Luvox” appeared prominently in the headline and the language asserting SSRIs as a possible cause was as strong as language describing other factors.  Recently, Insight on the News ran a special report warning that SSRIs are dangerous and even quoting a source who "would have no problem testifying in court to the fact that the psychotropic drug Harris was taking played a role in why he did the shooting."  The other Insight articles that focused on Littleton each discussed one of several of the other possible explanations, comprising well-balanced overall coverage.

The other magazine judged to have little advertising influence, Formulary, contained only one article about Littleton.  To discuss the FDA’s plans to encourage more pediatric drug research, the article suggested Harris’s off-label use of “an antidepressant” to treat his obsessive compulsive disorder was “linked to the Littleton (CO) high school shootings in April.”  As in Insight, the article in Formulary prominently and directly discussed the possible link between SSRIs and violence.  No magazine with a high susceptibility to influence from pharmaceutical advertisers named Luvox as a possible cause of the Littleton tragedy.  The discrepancy between publications with high and low advertising strongly suggests that advertiser pressure prevented most media outlets from raising questions vital to public health.

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