Problems at Quackwatch

N8

williamgrogan wrote:

Quackwatch ( www.quackwatch.com )

Barrett Loses Appeal, Leaves Town

Self proclaimed Quackbuster, Stephen Barrett, MD, recently handed crushing defeats by Drs Tedd Koren and Ilena Rosenthal, has announced he is leaving his home town and operating base in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

On June 11th, 2007, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania affirmed a lower court dismissal of Barrett's defamation suite against Dr. Koren. Barrett's case was so lacking in merit the judge blocked it from going to the jury. Barrett simply had no case against Dr. Koren. This followed another stunning defeat last month in California. There an appeals court ordered Barrett and crony Terry Polevoy, MD to post bonds of more than $400,000.00 after they lost a defamation case against Illena Rosenthal virtually identical to the Koren case.

Perhaps the fact that lawyers and judges in Allentown are catching on to his intimidation schemes explains why Barrett is moving to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Barrett can run but he can't hide. Chapel Hill collection attorneys are already being asked to locate his assets to pay his unmet legal obligations. Assets of other Quackwatch, Inc., principals might also be sought.


Who Is Steven Barrett, What Are Quackbusters?

Steven Barrett is an unlicensed Pennsylvania psychiatrist, who, though he failed his psychiatric boards and has been criticized for his lack of expertise by several courts, still claims to often advise the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the FBI, State Attorneys General, HMOs, Consumer Reports, medical journals and state medical, chiropractic and dental boards.

The insurance industry cites Barrett's highly opinionated "Quackbuster" attacks to deny paying claims for chiropractic and other natural healthcare.

Barrett and the "Quackbusters," a vigilante group of self proclaimed skeptics of any medical or health modality that avoids drugs, surgery or radiation, attack almost all non-conventional healthcare practices as quackery. Ignoring all scientific research to the contrary, they dismiss Gulf War Syndrome, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Chemical Sensitivity, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and dietary supplements as rubbish. Double Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling is on their "quack" hit list along with many well known and respected doctors and scientists, including Deepak Chopra, Andrew Weil, and dozens of others.

Barrett claims to give over 500 interviews a year to newspapers, magazines, and television shows, including CNN and the Today Show. He claims to have been a peer reviewer for seven medical journals, including the Journal of the American Medical Association, even though he had no license to practice medicine when he did the reviewing.

The Quackbusters run over 70 websites. Millions of people go to them every year. Look up chiropractic, acupuncture, homeopathy or even vitamin C, as well as almost every other natural health topic, on the Internet and you (and the public) will be led to Quackbuster sites advising you of natural health "dangers." In all these forums Barrett and the Quackbusters relentlessly attack the consumer right to informed choice. These activities continue the AMA's anti-quackery committee's activities that were struck down by federal courts as an illegal restraint of trade in a landmark lawsuit brought by Illinois chiropractor Chester Wilk. They also help insurance companies deny consumer reimbursement claims.

At the same time, Barrett flacks for products like aspartame (NutraSweet), which is the subject of tens of thousands of consumer complaints. Question (asked on Barrett's web site): "An email message is being circulated with many statements to the effect that aspartame is dangerous. How worried should I be?" Answer (from Barrett): "Not at all. The message is pure rubbish."

bet his newsletters aren't full of laughs now....

davros

How about an attribution for that article?

From what I can see, Barrett has lost a defamation lawsuit that he took himself. But the chiropractics are trying to spin it as a vindication for their brand of quackery.

Steven Barrett is an unlicensed Pennsylvania psychiatrist...

His own website says he is retired.

In all these forums Barrett and the Quackbusters relentlessly attack the consumer right to informed choice.

That's a laughable statement. Providing information to balance the wild claims of alternative medicine is attacking the ability to make an informed choice?

It's not as funny, though, as this statement from Carlos Negrete, legal counsel for the World Chiropractic Alliance (WCA):

Calling the case a "landmark decision" for chiropractors and
alternative care providers, Negrete noted that "Barrett has made a
career out of attacking core chiropractic values, specifically
subluxation, with no scientific basis for his contentions. This case
clearly shows that his opinions about chiropractic or other health
care options are irrelevant."

The alt medicine crowd have some neck to criticise Barret for making claims without a scientific basis!

Myksyk

N8 wrote:

... along with many well known and respected doctors and scientists, including Deepak Chopra.

ROFL

bonkey

The frequency with which we see Barrett attacked through postings, either by FEnnnn and now N8 is, I must say, somewhat peculiar.

More peculiar is that when one runs an internet search to try and find the details behind the case, all that is easy to find are myriads of articles saying exactly the same thing, with only minor variations in content.

Having said that, I've no particular wish to defend Barrett. To me, what it looks like is that the "alternative medicine" industry have been lucky enough to have someone not-quite-good-enough go after them overzealously. As a consequence, it appears that the entire sideshow is being leveraged (dishonestly, in my opinion) to somehow attack the fundamental concepts of skepticism. Its the usual flawed argument that "if we can show one is flawed, they all aree". Informed skeptics, of course, know that this is just a sleight-of-hand inversion of the correct approach which is "until you can show that one is genuine, none are".

I'd love to know more details of the cases at hand, so I could form an unbiased opinion of them. Unfortunately, the pervasive nature of the content that N8 has provided us with makes that almost impossible.

kmick

davros wrote:

The alt medicine crowd have some neck to criticise Barret for making claims without a scientific basis!

I would disagree that a chiropractor can be classed as alt medicine. As always the nut jobs on the extremes of any argument get the press. The hard working people on both sides of the medicine vs natural remedy scene keep on doing their jobs and healing people.

bonkey

kmick wrote:

I would disagree that a chiropractor can be classed as alt medicine. As always the nut jobs on the extremes of any argument get the press.

As I understand it, the argument against (most forms of) chiropracty is that it relies on non-testable concepts, and therefore is non-scientific in nature.

Thus, it is not just "the nutjobs" against whom the argument is levelled. The "alternative" label is applied because of the inherent non-scientific nature of untestable (and thus unfalsifiable) concepts.

The hard working people on both sides of the medicine vs natural remedy scene keep on doing their jobs and healing people.

The point being made, I think, is that with so-called alternative medicine, there is no scientific basis to show that people are being healed by the actual methods employed.

I note that you phrase this point with respect to natural remedies, though, and not with regards to "alternative medicine". There is a distinction, in that natural remedies can be scientifically evaluated. Those that pass evaluation become medicine.