A friend sent me the following comments and article link, and since Stephen Barrett and “Quackwatch” have bashed her organization and many other organizations that I firmly believe in (including the Weston Price Foundation itself, who are responsible for my food conversion and the return to good health for MANY people), I’m thankful she gave me her permission to post it:
Why don't more doctors embrace non-drug therapies? What is the source of some of the highly negative information about the use of things like vitamins, herbs, acupuncture, etc.? What is the group that calls itself “Quackbusters” who are so often quoted in the media? Even though it is long, the article below is just a brief overview of what has been going on in this country for a long time. It shows how a handful of very disturbed people can cause unnecessary suffering and death for millions.”
I would also add to her comments that many doctors and the public don’t recognize the power of REAL FOOD for healing and optimal health, and in part that is due to websites like Quackwatch and others. This article is a nice peek at the corruption that goes on behind the scenes at these websites where they claim to “inform us”.
- “Though they seem to have more lives than a cat, it seems likely that Quackbusters will be down for the count.”
- “Amidst the morass of fallacious attacks by mainstream medicine on honest alternative approaches to health, now and then there's a glitter of good news. It's a breath of fresh air to announce that the self-styled Quackbusters, headed by a self-styled psychiatrist who failed his exam and was never accepted into the profession, has fallen to one of its targeted victims.”
- “In other words, the California Supreme Court found that Barrett and Sampson were using the court system to operate a self-enrichment scam! Barrett and his partner in crime, Sampson, were attempting to enrich themselves by destroying the reputations and livelihoods of alternative healthcare practitioners.”
- “Where did Barrett get the money to pursue so many cases? Thus far, no one seems to have found the hard proof, but it's obvious that the backing for his nefarious machinations has been Big Pharma and Big Medicine, which seek to drive any and all competition out of business and make them illegal.”
- “Quackbusters quickly set up a series of interlinked websites and mastered the art of getting first-page listings on Google. These sites include NCAHF, Quackwatch, Acupuncturewatch, Allergywatch, Autismwatch, Bioethicswatch, Cancer Treatment Watch, Casewatch, Chelationwatch, Chirobase, Credentialwatch, Dentalwatch, Device Watch, Diet Scam Watch, Homeowatch, Infomercialwatch, Internet Health Pilot, Mental Health Watch, MLMwatch, Naturowatch, NCCAMwatch, Nutriwatch, Pharmwatch, and Quackwatch.”
- “Each of these sites is set up on an identical layout with exactly the same image on the main page. They consist primarily of text lifted from other sources, mainly sites like government agencies. There is precious little original material. Most of the sites appear not to be updated or updated only rarely. They were created largely by reproducing articles published elsewhere. These sites have a life of their own. Once created, they simply sit there as their notoriety grows—and deluded people read them in the belief that they offer legitimate information.”
Read the whole article: Quackbusters Are Busted!
karen ferguson says
*sigh* I crave part of the 60’s where we took back our power, took our health into our own hands, had free clinics and ‘organic’ was a new concept but never challenged.
Well, frankly, challenged or not challenged, there’s a huge underground movement of cancer treatment [and prevention], and thank heavens one can’t do away w/ the herbs or put a “copyright” on them. And, no one in their right mind truly believes that the pills they are popping are healing them. I believe their minds are clouded w/ poor nutrition and they can’t possibly think straight w/ all the sugar and processed food ingestion.
Thanks for bringing this up, Kelly. I ran into one of these chaps [Sampson I think it was who taught there] at Stanford and he invited me to his class. Perhaps I should have gone as intended, but I simply couldn’t be bothered. That was 10 years ago…he was ramping up but had a huge reputation here in the Bay area. I’m not sure anyone took him seriously. He was at an alternative medicine conference the med students put on. Alas, I haven’t seen one since, but it was valuable.
I also went to a wellness conference in San Francisco put on by a medical group about 10 years ago. When the female doc started to talk to us about hormones, there was a visible MOAN in the room when her slides were from the pharma industry. Huge Exit!! She was clueless: apparently she hadn’t listened to her customers.
These people are dangerous because they are parroting what their drug reps say. Sigh. But they dig themselves into holes. I say let’s be semi-gracious, while saying “no” to their way of [non]thinking while at the same time persuading them to look at healing a different way. They must be scared out of their minds, having spent a small fortune on medical school and end up throwing out all they learned to re-learn another way.
Hats off to our emergency medicine in the States. There’s no where else I’d rather be than in the USA for a broken ankle. In and out though…too many germs in hospitals.
We have changed things. We are revolting …Let’s turn up the volume!!
Hugs.
karen in CA
Dana says
Logical thinking is in short supply these days. Quite a bit of the Quackwatch site consists of appeals to authority or to the “everybody knows” fallacy. Even if Barrett isn’t getting himself into legal trouble, to put it bluntly, his site is crap. If he’s got a case, let him support it with science, not with pseudoscience and appeals to authority and “everybody knows” and wishful thinking.
David N. Brown says
This repost should be taken down. The claim that Barrett failed to meet a deadline for responding was refuted weeks ago: Even Tim Bolen, who originated said claim, now admits that Barrett has until August 30 to respond. Even apart from that, Barrett was not required to respond through an attorney, as American law allows a motion to dismiss in lieu of a response. I also established that the quote from the “King Bio” case was taken substantially out of context, and completely debunked the supposed “admissions” by Barrett, which in fact are allegations (at least one badly garbled) from a filing by individuals whom Barrett sued for reposting defamatory content by Tim Bolen. (Stevenson deleted comments outlining that the “admissions” were invented.)
Furthermore, Bolen is notoriously unreliable. By prevailing opinion, he is both dishonest and delusional. He has most recently attempted (pathetically) to intimidate me and others into silence by claiming that we can be added as defendants. Said claim is preposterous, and could easily be considered third-party legal misconduct. Ms. Stevenson was warned to remove any content for which this thug was a source, and her reputation will suffer accordingly.
Jeanmarie says
Thanks for publicizing this, I hadn’t heard of this ruling, though I was familiar with Quackbusters and long thought them to be the quacks.
Raine Saunders says
Kelly – I am so glad to hear about this! I have been on this site more than multiple times over the years reading their garbage, and I was always disheartened to hear that this organization was doing what it was – it always seemed so evil and insidious to make your life’s work out of going around and trying to undo other people’s attempts to help people heal…but I tried to ignore it because I figured the Internet is not regulated (which in many ways is a good thing!), and that you cannot sit around and worry about what some nutjob is doing. I am reposting this on my FB account. Thanks for sharing this! 🙂
Flo says
I’m with you on this, Raine! It’s hard to take that someone can be out there doing this! I also agree that not being regulated is a good thing — because it could always go the other direction. It’s frustrating, though, because it looks SO official! You really have to be your own advocate and seek out good sites like this one and find allies. Thank goodness for the Internet and people like Kelly & friends! 🙂
Kate says
I’ve been disgusted with this website and these people for awhile so I’m glad it’s finally starting to spread. How backwards and insane that companies feel the need to do these kinds of things. If their treatments were honestly better, they wouldn’t need dirty tricks to get people to take them!
Flo says
I’ve heard these guys were fading away before (hence the nine lives comment, I guess). I hope it’s real this time. My realization about Stephen Barrett and Quackwatch (and the Baratz guy on the Canadian side of things) came over time. I started realizing that every time I wanted to research something ‘alternative’, Stephen Barrett and his ‘organization’ would pop up. I started wondering what kind of genius this guy was. How could he be an expert in so many areas? Then I started reading what he was saying. No matter WHAT this issue, he was against it! I was incredulous when I came to this realization and had to tell me husband — just to share my amazement with someone! He’s not into all this stuff, but even he recognizes ole Stephen Barrett’s name by now! It almost makes me want to take a second look at something — if SB doesn’t like it! ‘Talk about backfiring!
Flo says
MY husband — too late, I guess!
Michael says
Yeah we have been busting Quackwatch for years on the Native Nutrition yahoo group and later the Weston Price Chapter Leaders yahoo group (to a lesser extent), so this news isn’t surprising, but I’m glad it is starting to spread.
Alex at A Moderate Life says
Kel, I did share this article on my thoughts on friday. You can see it here: https://amoderatelife.com/?p=386 I think it is SO important for everyone to be aware of the insideous nature of Misinformation! Thanks again!
RadiantLux says
https://www.quackpotwatch.org/
Tim Bolen is a chiro who has had run-in with Quackwatch many years ago. Quackwatch has tried to sue Dr. Mercola. The scary thing is that Jimmy Moore reported that there were people from Quackwatch speaking at the Metabolism conference. They are trying to gain access where possible.
Peggy says
WHOHOO!! YAY! Doing a great big old happy dance that you exposed these guys. I’ve always had suspicions, but couldn’t prove anything on my own. They were just against everything it seemed. The internet seems to be proving the old adage to believe half of what you see and none of what you hear. Thank you, thank you, thank you for busting these ducks!
Alex at A Moderate Life says
Kel, this is an amazing article and I am gonna share it on my Thoughts on Friday because I find it so important that people REALLY understand that a lot of the scare tactics used by the media and “information” found on the internet is not only FALSE but backed by pretty sleezy alterior motives by folks who stand to gain a lot of money scaring the public! Thanks so much for posting this!
Brandy Afterthoughts says
What a relief!
I remember once, shortly after I began studying iridology, that I decided to see what criticisms there were of the technique. After all, I had no evidence that it “worked.” Well, I found Quackwatch (of course). He quoted some study analyzing the “accuracy” of Bernard Jensen’s work with kidney patients. Interesting little thing though: accuracy was judged by Jensen’s ability to corroborate what standard medical tests had “proven.” So, for instance, if a test “proved” that a patient had kidney disease, and Jensen’s technique did not, Jensen was defined as “wrong” (regardless of whether or not he actually helped the patient). I talked to an osteopathic friend of mine about it. He said he couldn’t believe this guy was serious, for it is now well known that the standard medical tests at that time (before 1950, can’t recall the exact decade offhand) were less than 50% accurate.
It was then that I decided that Quackwatch wasn’t what it purported to be, and that I couldn’t take their criticism seriously.