This study examined the accuracy and adequacy of lay media news stories about CAM. A descriptive analysis was undertaken of news stories about CAM in the Australian media using a national medical news monitoring Website, <http://www.mediadoctor.org.au>. Each story was rated against 10 criteria by two individuals. Consensus scores of 222 news articles reporting therapeutic claims about complementary medicines posted on <http://www.mediadoctor.org.au> between 1 January 2004 and 1 September 2007 were calculated. The overall rating score for 222 CAM articles was 50% (95% CI, 47 to 53). There was a statistically significant difference in cumulative mean scores according to type of therapy: biologically-based practices (54%, 95% CI, 50 to 58); manipulative body-based practices (46%, 95% CI, 39 to 54), whole medical systems (45%, 95% CI, 32 to 58), mind–body medicine (41%, 95% CI, 31 to 50) and energy medicine (33%, 95% CI, 11 to 55). There was a statistically significant difference in cumulative mean scores according to the clinical outcome of interest, with stories about cancer treatments (62%, 95% CI, 54 to 70) scoring highest and stories about treatments for children’s behavioural and mental health concerns scoring lowest (31%, 95% CI, 19 to 43). Significant differences were also found in scores between media outlets.