Ben Goldacre^[1]. the Man who thousands of Guardian readers have trusted to give them a regular 'Bad Science'^[2] column for the last 5 years is described in a new book^[3] published at midday Today as “working at the centre of New Labour’s Orwellian spin operation” and whose supposedly skeptical column “actually reflects the ideology of powerful industrial, technological and political vested interests.”

Goldacre's brash, controversial style often peppered with veiled personal attacks has made him many enemies and the assertion that he has powerful backers comes as no surprise to us. He has accused groups such as Powerwatch of “Scaremongering”, despite many scientific studies which back up perfectly valid assertions.

Mast Sanity were even mentioned after the release of the misrepresented and flawed Essex^[4] study back in July when Goldacre said “A cracking press release from “Mast Sanity“, who I often forget to mention, because they’re so rabid”^[5]

Goldacre is dismissive of many issues including the negative health effects from Wi-fi, the adverse effects that those with ElectroHyperSensitivity (EHS) suffer (which has come about largely due to the increased microwave and electromagnetic radiation we are being exposed to these days), the MMR jab-Autism link even calling it a 'hoax'. Basically, it appears that he is generally dismissive of many areas which impact upon the revenues of large industry. This is consistent with the findings of the new book. The book is free and can be easily downloaded from www.slingshotpublications.com . We owe it to ourselves to find out what Ben Goldacre is really about.

Rather than talk about the three independent scientists who appeared on Panorama[8] and have spent their lives doing research into the effects of EMR and were in full agreement that schools should not install Wi-fi, or talk about the fact that Sir William Stewart reiterated his warnings from the Stewart Report saying that they found evidence for cancer and that children were more vulnerable, Goldacre[9] concentrated on attacking the engineer, Alasdair Philips, taking the radiation measurements. These measurements were very similar to those presented in a paper at an earlier World Health Organisation (WHO) conference. Goldacre also did not mention that the UK Health Protection Agency (HPA) were trying to down-play the comments made by their chairman, when the Independent[7] reported the story a month before the programme was aired. The HPA initially put a statement on its web site indicating that Sir Wiliam had not spoken out against wi-fi. This was hastily removed from their web site the day before the programme was aired.

We find Goldacre very selective in his arguments. If he were the industry, his statements would be the same.

Isn't it time that The Guardian drops Goldacre's ranting, discredited 'Bad Science' column and replaces it with a credible column which contains articles with properly balanced views of the science areas discussed[6] ?

Notes and References:

[1] Ben Goldacre – Bad Science – www.badscience.net

[2] Bad Science Guardian column - http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/series/badscience

[3] “Cultural Dwarfs and Junk Journalism” Press Release -http://www.slingshotpublications.com/dwarfs.html and http://www.theoneclickgroup.co.uk/news.php?start=1780&end=1800&view=yes&id=2063#newspost

A G A I N S T D R B E N G O L D A C R E

Cultural Dwarfs and Junk Journalism is Martin Walker’s fourth book charting the development of the corporate science lobby that has grown rapidly since New Labour came to power in 1997. One of the most recent exponents of the Lobby is Dr Ben Goldacre who has regurgitated a bad ‘Science’ column in the Guardian newspaper since 2003.

Like other quackbusters Goldacre claims to write factually based and scientifically accurate articles about health, medicine and science either supporting scientists and doctors or criticising individuals involved in alternative or nutritional health care. Goldacre’s writing, however, actually reflects the ideology of powerful industrial, technological and political vested interests.

Goldacre who it is claimed is a Junior doctor working in a London NHS hospital is actually a clinical researcher working at the centre of New Labour’s Orwellian spin operation that puts a sympathetic gloss on anything shown to create adverse reactions from MMR to Wi-Fi, while at the same time undermining cost-effective and long tried alternative therapies such as acupuncture and homoeopathy. Goldacre is involved with public health researchers well known for trying to prove that those who claim to be adversely affected by pollutants in our modern high-technology society, suffer from ‘false illness beliefs’.

Cultural Dwarfs and Junk Journalism, investigates Goldacre’s role in industry lobby groups and puts another point of view in defense of some of the people whom he has attacked, belittled, satirized, castigated, vilified, maligned and opined against in his junk journalism.

* * *

Cultural Dwarfs and Junk Journalism: Ben Goldacre, quackbusters and corporate science, is available from the Slingshot Publications web site as a free download, from mid-day on Wednesday January 2nd.

To be effective as a campaigning document, it is important that this book is distributed far and wide as quickly as possible. Please forward this publication information together with the Slingshot Publications web site address. Another thing that will help with the book’s distribution is the writing of even very short reviews for different web sites, this helps get the book onto Google listings.

This book is free and can be downloaded from the Slingshot Publications site: www.slingshotpublications.com. Please distribute it as widely as possible and if you think that the work is worth it, consider making a small donation. Also on the Slingshot site, is Martin Walker’s last book, The Fate of a Good Man. The book tells the story of Jim Wright, the investigation into him, his prosecution and trial by the Big Pharma regulatory agency, the MHRA. A good read at £5.00

[4] 'Misrepresented' Essex Study - http://www.mastsanity.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=160&Itemid=90

[5] Mast Sanity 'rabid' quote - http://www.badscience.net/?p=466 – (N.B. This 'blog' content may disappear, but we have copies)

[6] e.g. The Bioinitiative Report – http://www.bioinitiative.org

[7] Wi-Fi: Children at risk from 'electronic smog' - http://news.independent.co.uk/health/article2472133.ece

[8] Panorama – Wi-Fi : A Warning Signal - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/6683969.stm

[9] Bad Science on Wi-fi etc. - http://www.badscience.net/?cat=65