Comments on Oot and Aboot with Some Canadian Skeptic: The Pro-Homeopaths Strike Back! (or, Charlie Bit ...

Want to get the greedy publisher’s attention? Skip...

2009-09-23T19:12:46.940-04:00

Want to get the greedy publisher’s attention? Skip the Press Council and complain directly to the advertisers. Tell them the Straight is unethical, unprofessional, and is not a paper you want to read. Further, you plan to boycott their service or product as long as they support this sort of irresponsible nonsense being published – professional journalists wouldn’t tolerate this being published because it is not factually accurate.

Your comment that "Charlie is mad" is as...

2009-09-23T18:51:01.226-04:00

Your comment that "Charlie is mad" is astute. The Georgia Straight's editor is a laughing stock in Vancouver for his paranoid rants, always supported with facts he misrepresents. His defence of his boss's daughter's drivel is typical. He also likes conspiracy theories and is so gullible that other news media, like CBC radio, actually mock him for reporting obvious April Fool's jokes as if they're fact. Thanks for dismantling is crazy babble so effectively.

Excellent post. Love how quacks always defend the...

2009-09-23T05:31:15.132-04:00

Excellent post.

Love how quacks always defend their useless remedies against the slightest criticism by diverting attention onto the Evils of Orthodox Medicine. Yawn....

I agree that the article posted in the Straight is...

2009-09-22T19:42:24.618-04:00

I agree that the article posted in the Straight is unethical, for both of the reasons you laid out. I agree that the response is a non-response, and doesn't address the issues at hand.

However... from reading the BC Press Council Code of Practice (which I'm assuming is yet another self-regulated industry?), I'm not entirely sure under what heading a complaint can be raised...

Like most industry self-regulation, the Code of Practice gives a guise of regulation without any actual regulations.

1. Accuracy. The numbers quoted in the article are likely accurate, within the bounds demanded by journalists (ie not very accurate).

2 and 3 (OPPORTUNITY TO REPLY and PRIVACY) don't seem to apply here.

4. COMMENT AND FACT: it would seem that the nonsense in the Straight is simply conjecture dressed up as fact. However, their facts bleed into their conjecture, and I really don't see how a board of Jounalists are going to summarily determine that it's just conjecture. It's complete nonsense that homeopathy achieves anything, it's just conjecture: and yet it appears in the newspapers all the time. Given that, the Press Council would have to step on all current health "journalism" in order to rule against the Straight. I consider myself an idealist when it comes to this sort of thing, but I don't feel that it's realistic to expect much if a complaint is logged under this category.

5 through 12 just don't apply.

Furthermore, if the Straight is ruled against, they have to publish a 'we were wrong' notice. And then they can continue to write the same crap as usual after that (or even in the same issue).

I don't see how either nepotism, or conflict-of-interest, apply under these 12 categories. Can you elaborate?

Chiming in to add that sometimes the homeopathic p...

2009-09-22T14:01:29.186-04:00

Chiming in to add that sometimes the homeopathic preparations themselves are sometimes dangerous - as with that so-called homeopathic nasal spray a while back (Zicam) that was damaging people's sense of smell.

I agree that having a homeopath write a pro-homeop...

2009-09-22T13:57:35.093-04:00

I agree that having a homeopath write a pro-homeopathy article is not, as a rule, a conflict of interest (and I made the same connection about doctors in my previous post), but the complication here is that Sonya McLeod is a practicing homeopath, and stands to financially-gain from convincing people to seek homeopathy. Especially when compared to her first pro-homeopathy article back in June, when she said "no household should be without a homeopathic first aid kit"....which she conveniently sells for $120 each.

So yeah, I agree that the larger conflict is that she's the daughter of the owner, but she's not exactly covering her motivations very well.

I think the argument that it is a conflict of inte...

2009-09-22T13:44:37.966-04:00

I think the argument that it is a conflict of interest for a Homoeopath to comment on homoeopathy is a bit specious. Doctor's comment on medicine all the time. The real difference is the homoeopath was not using science to back her claims up. The bigger conflict is the personal relationship of the author to the publisher, I think and this should be questioned - although publishers, I think, are not expected to be wholly unbiased in their reporting.

2009-09-22T13:43:21.931-04:00

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Nicely done. I posted a comment early this mornin...

2009-09-22T13:41:23.975-04:00

Nicely done.
I posted a comment early this morning on the Straight's reply piece, but it didn't get approved for some reason (the only reason I can think is that I included a link to the Ottawa Citizen's very sane editorial yesterday about vaccination).