Talk:Ben Goldacre
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From the other side of the pond
Tom, I'm the first to admit that I don't understand the nuances of British journalism (you have Page 3 girls and we don't), regulation, and the delicate democratic balance among media, politics, and interest groups. You know I'm strongly opposed to fringe-ish pseudoscience at CZ.
Nevertheless, this article interested me, and I looked a bit farther. Ignoring the activist blogs, I was fascinated by the issues about the BBC investigating its own science reporting [1]. I'd want to be sure that this article didn't paint Goldacre simply as a wise crusader. The vaccination/MMR matters certainly need coverage, perhaps in their own article -- after all, anti-vaccination comes back to our old friend homeopathy, as well as the autism claims.
I did run across one blog post that simply suggested that Goldacre be called an allopath rather than a physician, to show he was simply an anti-homeopathy propagandist. Ludicrous -- Osler put this to rest, I thought, almost a century ago, but I urge careful and noninflammatory writing here. Let me know how an American Rebel can help. It might even be enough for me to recruit a friend and colleague who carefully qualified as a Son of the American Revolution, and then pointed out that he lives in suburban Toronto, for good historical reason. Howard C. Berkowitz 03:02, 14 August 2010 (UTC)
- By the definitions of the homeopaths, Goldacre is definitely an allopath. But that isn't saying much, because all an allopath seems to be is someone who practices non-homeopathic medicine - that is, proper medicine. In my books, calling someone an allopath is a term of honour. If there were a word for not being an astrologer, it would hardly be an insult. I also don't agree that anti-vaccination comes back to homeopathy - the only reason homeopaths go on about vaccination is because they want to confuse people: if homeopathy actually worked, it might work in the same way vaccination works. The difference is that vaccination does work! Homeopathy and homeostasis have a similar relationship: they share syllables, but that is about it. I hope that all the topics that Goldacre covers get their own articles - and part of the point of starting articles like this is to provide the entry-points to start such articles. –Tom Morris 11:17, 14 August 2010 (UTC)