Andrew Wakefield and the GMC: A Badly Argued Defence
James Le Fanu has an article in the Daily Telegraph today regarding the GMC case against Andrew Wakefield, John Walker-Smith, and Simon Murch. It is very badly argued. Read the rest of this entry »
The News You Didn’t Read: MMR Safe
Andrew Wakefield wrong? No connection between measles vaccination and autism? Not the kind of story the mainstream media are interested in. It doesn’t matter what quality of evidence you put before the press – what matters to them is the kind of story that the evidence can be claimed to support. Read the rest of this entry »
The Daily Mail and My PCC Complaint
Sorry to leave the thrilling topic of chiropractic, but I’ve had an email today that I thought might interest you. I promise I’ll get back to blogging on chiropractic soon. Now, as some of you may recall, I wrote to the Daily Mail to complain about two articles they wrote: one regarding an increased risk of Age-Related Macular Degeneration due to excessive consumption of red meat, and one that was headlined “Scientists discover the brain’s ‘God spot’… and show that faith helps human survival”. The Mail didn’t even bother to respond to my complaint so I contacted the Press Complaints Commission (I also complained to the PCC about the Daily Telegraph at the same time). The PCC has now responded to my complaint about the Daily Mail, which I shall share with you below – although I am still waiting to hear about a similar complaint regarding the Daily Telegraph’s coverage of the red meat story (who, like the Mail, failed even to give me the courtesy of a response when I complained, let alone admit fault with their story or make changes). I think that the PCC has decided that the Telegraph’s headline and coverage are acceptable and I doubt that the Telegraph have even been contacted. Read the rest of this entry »
Measles, Mumps, and the Media
[BPSDB]
Mumps features in several news reports of the last few days. Measles has had a couple of mentions too. Read the rest of this entry »
“Eating chocolate could improve the brain’s ability to do maths”
Well, according to the Daily Telegraph and a conference presentation it can. It all seems a little bit flakey to me. Read the rest of this entry »
3-in-1 PCC Complaint
This is probably a waste of my time*. Nevertheless, I have decided to complain to the PCC about the failure of the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph to respond to my criticism of their pieces on red meat and blindness (or the Mail’s piece on the brain’s God spot). Reproduced below is the letter: Read the rest of this entry »
The Promotion of Counterknowledge
[BPSDB] Those promoting Counterknowledge are winning. Possibly because the public actually don’t really care that much*. (Damien Thompson’s book Counterknowledge is available from local libraries in my area, yet I am the first person in the 14 months since it has been in the library catalogue to borrow it.) It is also possible that Counterknowledge is spreading at least partly because people with a measure of influence in society are among those who promote it. Members of the British royal family, politicians, the mainstream media, celebrities, Alternative Medicine practitioners posing as authority figures, members of churches, and even universities have helped to promote Counterknowledge. Not to mention maverick scientists such as Andrew Wakefield. Those with less authority are playing an important part too, though. For example, full-time conspiracy theorists such as the owner of the whale.to website are disseminating bullshit that is reproduced on forums such as What Doctors Don’t Tell You, or JABS. Read the rest of this entry »
The Ever-Accurate Mainstream Media on Detox
The Daily Telegraph have lost it. If you consider that they had it to lose, that is*. They have written a piece on “10 ways to detox in your garden” that refers to Ben Goldacre as being part of Sense about Science and states that Goldacre “says the liver will detox your body naturally with good lifelong diet and exercise habits. And the garden is the ideal place to start – and sustain – your new regime.” For the record, Goldacre has pointed out on his miniblog that he has “nothing to do with SaS. They’re alright, but I’m nowt to do with them.” It’s unclear where the journalist got this idea from, but fact-checking is clearly a thing of the past in the British Mainstream Media. Read the rest of this entry »
The Media Red Wine Obsession
The media seems to be very keen indeed to tell us all about the wonderful properties of red wine. Here is their latest effort. A Doctor who owns a vineyard is apparently producing red wine high in antioxidants Read the rest of this entry »
Stuff And Nonsense 