December 27, 2008

Celebrities, Science and Politics

Celebrities, Science and Politics

One more article about celebrities and science. Again in this article Tom Cruise's criticism of psychiatry is cited as wrong. Still no critical skills by journalists regarding psychiatry. Journalists are as clueless as ordinary people when it comes to being fooled by corporate greed and PR.

Harvard psychiatrist Joseph Biederman (doesn't he look like the Harvard psychiatrist in the Mel Gibson film Conspiracy Theory?) took $1.6 million from drug companies to promote drug treatment. He failed to inform his employers at Mass General Hospital and at Harvard Medical School. For money he signed his name to an article published in medical journals that was written by drug companies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/us/08conflict.html

Researchers Fail to Reveal Full Drug Pay
By GARDINER HARRIS and BENEDICT CAREY
The New York Times
Published: June 8, 2008

This makes the entire apparatus for relying on medical peer review journals suspect. It undermines the entire medical apparatus of approving new treatments. If money determines what treatments are good how reliable are they?

Why are celebrity opinions on science ridiculed when politicians accept their endorsements and their millions to run for office? Without Hollywood celebrities and their money would Barack Obama have won the election? Why are they stupid regarding science but smart about politics? Does money make one intelligent? (I know that rich people think they are smart because they are rich; and that they are rich because they are smart.)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article5401129.ece

From The London Times Online
December 27, 2008
Don’t take health tips from celebs if you know what’s good for you
by David Rose

Roy Bercaw - Editor ENOUGH ROOM

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