Dr. Oz has officially become Mike Adams, the looniest of quack loons and conspiracy theorists, whose massively unhinged attacks on behalf of Dr. Oz that I noted basically said the same things that Oz ended up saying [in his TV counter attack]. Truly, if I thought that maybe Dr. Oz might have had a shred of honor left before, I harbor no such illusion now. Oz is about as despicable as it gets.
The producers of The Dr. Oz Show decided it would be a good idea for Oz to interview Dr. Joel Fuhrman. … Fuhrman is a raw food faddist who takes a vitalistic view of cooking food in which cooking somehow destroys living antioxidants, phytochemicals, and a variety of other compounds, without which the body can’t be healthy and “must break down.” No wonder Oz likes him.
Fuhrman serves as Oz’s surrogate and really lays it on thick. He describes the signatories of the letter [by physicians critical of Oz) as “not representative” of physicians and their letter as an “attack against all physicians” (nonsense!), pushing a “dangerous agenda,” and being “anti-American” and, of course, “anti-freedom.”
Yes, freedom of speech is one of the most fundamental rights we have as Americans, but freedom of speech does not mean freedom from criticism, nor does it obligate a production company to give Oz a platform or a TV station to broadcast his opinions.
The problem is that what Oz promotes on his TV show is not that different from what he probably promotes as the director of Columbia’s integrative medicine program, which is not that different from what is happening in the rest of quackademia, as increasingly quackery is “integrated” with academic medicine to become quackademic medicine. Oz is a symptom, but a big one.
If you don’t believe me, just check out this op-ed published in USA TODAY by several Columbia faculty, entitled What do we do about Dr. Oz? In the letter, Dr. Michael Rosenbaum, professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center, and his co-authors, practically bend over backwards not to be too critical of Oz, praising him for “bringing alternative therapies which are generally under-researched and under-regulated into the public forum,” which nearly made me spit out my iced tea on my computer.
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Read full, original post: America’s quack counterattacks by calling his critics industry hacks
