As a reporter with a decade-long history of credulously reporting antivaccine conspiracy theories and pseudoscience as news, Sharyl Attkisson is an old "friend" of the blog. This time, she's reporting a new-old conspiracy theory about the Autism Omnibus proceedings. I say "new-old" because she tries to mightily to produce a new version of the central conspiracy theory of the antivaccine movement.
Category: Television
My Cancer Free Life: Reality docuseries as a commercial for cancer quack Stanislaw Burzynski
When I first encountered Stanislaw Burzynski and the Burzynski Clinic around a decade ago, I didn’t know what to make of him. Sure, he seemed quacky, with all the testimonials of miracle cures and the claims that he cured deadly brain cancers like diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) that conventional oncology could do no more than palliate. Sure, it was rather odd that he had never done a fellowship in oncology or an oncology-related specialty. However, he was a Polish expat who seemingly was an excellent student, and he did have a brief career as a real cancer researcher at …
The University of Northern Iowa promotes facilitated communication quackery
The University of Northern Iowa is hosting a conference on facilitated communication, despite multiple warnings from academics that it's quackery and overwhelming evidence that it is the "facilitators" who are actually producing the claimed "communication" from nonverbal people and a history of producing false cases of child abuse. Why is UNI being so dangerously irresponsible?
Who cares what celebrities think about vaccines?
Parents Magazine published an article in which it listed what various celebrity moms think of vaccines. Unfortunately, it was an example of false equivalence. Indeed, it was one of the worst examples of false equivalence I've ever seen.
Stephen Colbert sells out to Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop
Almost alone among celebrities, Stephen Colbert used to ruthlessly (and justifiably) mock Gwyneth Paltrow's lifestyle brand Goop on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. So eyebrows were raised (at least mine were) when it was learned that Paltrow would be a guest on The Late Show. During a bout of insomnia last night I saw the episode and had time to write about it. Her appearance was worse than I expected, a veritable puff piece promoting her her quackiest In Goop Health, where a featured speaker is a rabidly antivaccine doctor named Kelly Brogan.
False balance in reporting the case of a local mother jailed for contempt of court for reneging on an agreement to vaccinate her child
Rachel Bredow is antivaccine and doesn't want her children vaccinated. Her ex-husband disagrees. When Ms. Bredow violated a court order to vaccinate her child, she was thrown into jail for contempt of court. Unfortunately, our local media have not exactly covered themselves in glory covering this story.
When Donald Trump met Dr. Oz: A huckster bromance
When I first heard that Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for President, was scheduled to appear on The Dr. Oz Show, my first thought was, basically, “Of course he is. What took him so long?” After all, it’s a crank pairing made in heaven. Given that, I considered it my skeptical blogging duty at least to watch the show, even if I never actually blogged about it. So I dutifully set my DVR to record it, and, after I got home from work, did my evening bike ride and ate dinner, I settled down in front of the television to …
Same as it ever was: Antivaccine crank Bill Maher loves him some HIV/AIDS quackery
I know I must be getting older because of Friday nights. I also know that I’m getting older because (1) there was no new post yesterday and (2) even today this post will look familiar to a significant number of our readership. Mea culpa, but trying to put the finishing touches on two R01 grants I’ve been working on takes a toll. Who knew? Things should get back to normal tomorrow or Friday at the latest. Be that as it may, let’s get back to Fridays. After a long, hard week (and, during grant season, in anticipation of a long, …
Ben Swann on the “#CDCtruth” rally: Regurgitating antivaccine talking points
Before yesterday, I had never heard of Ben Swann. Apparently he is the new anchor for the early evening news broadcast of the local Atlanta CBS affiliate, having joined the station in June. Apparently he is also prone to antivaccine conspiracy theories, which is a very bad thing to be prone to as a reporter or anyone working in the news media. I came to learn of Swann because of an article that looks on the verge of going viral (given that relatives have e-mailed me asking me about it) entitled CBS Reporter Ben Swann Tells the Truth About CDC …
Dr. Oz promises to stop promoting pseudoscience. Should we believe him?
Regular readers of this blog will find it no surprise that I don’t think much of Dr. Mehmet Oz. The reason, of course, is that his daily television show, The Dr. Oz Show, has been a font of misinformation about medicine almost since it began airing six years ago. It’s not for nothing that I long ago labeled him “America’s Quack.” Simply searching for the name Mehmet Oz on this blog will quickly produce examples of the many times when he’s credulously promoted quackery and pseudoscience such as homeopathy (The One Quackery To Rule Them All), faith healing, fear mongering …