#2419: Steve Wilson

Steve Wilson is an investigative reporter who became a bit of a celebrity in the early 2000s for his attacks on Monsanto and for painting himself as a whistleblower and victim when his then-employer WTVT refused to run the story the way he wanted: the conflict that led to Wilson’s contract not being renewed and several court cases (that Wilson lost). His story was picked up and portrayed as a conspiracy e.g. by antivaccine star Robert F. Kennedy jr. Until 2010 Wilson also served as Chief Investigative Reporter for WXYZ-TV, Detroit.

 

Wilson is an antivaccine crank and conspiracy theorist, and he has a long and notoriously difficult relationship with truth, accuracy and science; several of his “investigative” reports – also when he worked for WXYZ-TV – have been crammed with antivaccine misinformation. Here, for instance, is a deconstruction of one of his “news articles”: Starting from the false premise that autism rates have been skyrocketing, Wilson goes on to quote antivaccine parents and quote-mine statements from doctors to conclude that vaccines (which demonstrably do not cause autism) are to blame – thimerosal, to be specific (which isn’t even in childhood vaccines) – and suggests that “there’s a big incentive for industry and government to cover up the truth” (precisely what that incentive might be is left open, however). To bolster the conclusion, Wilson cites Boyd Haley, whom Wilson calls “a scientist and pioneer in the study of this issue” (Haley has no relevant credentials or scientific or research background on the issues), and pulls an impressive array of antivaccine canards, including Andrew Wakefield’s infamous “monkey study”, the claim that the Amish don’t vaccinate (false) and have a much lower incidence of autism (false) and the Hannah Poling case. There is a detailed breakdown of Wilson’s antivaccine reporting and the canards he employs here; also here.

 

And lest you make the mistake of thinking that Wilson is just a naïve journalist JAQing off or trying to present “both sides”: Wilson is hardcore antivaccine, and doesn’t respond particularly well to criticism of his errors. The argument that “yes, there are studies suggesting that vaccines are safe, but those are criticized by anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists, and anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists have their own lists of irrelevant, terrible and refuted studies, so therefore the science isn’t settled, so therefore vaccines are dangerous” does not qualify even as a balance fallacy.

 

Diagnosis: The kind of crank who gives “investigative reporting” a bad name: promoting conspiracy theories and pseudoscience as news is not investigative reporting.

#418: Douglas Wilson

After the – for chroniclers of loons – untimely demise of David Wilkerson in April 2011, we’ll move to the only slightly less unhinged fundie Douglas James Wilson. Wilson is a conservative Reformed and evangelical theologian, Rushdoony disciple, Christian reconstructionist, pastor at Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, faculty member at New Saint Andrews College, and pretty prolific author and speaker. He is perhaps most famous for the documentary “Collision” documenting his debate with Christopher Hitchens from Wilson’s point of view.

Wilson has written everything from theological treatises to children’s books to poetry to magazine articles. He has been an ardent advocate for classical Christian education, especially in “Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning”, where he argues that the American public schools are failing to educate their students, proposing instead a Christian approach to education based on the Trivium. He knows nothing about education, of course, but the point is not to achieve quality education but to prevent science-oriented teachers from using truth to brainwash children with reality.

Wilson's most controversial work is probably his “Southern Slavery, As It Was”, which says pretty much exactly what you’d fear that it says (it was written together with League of the South co-founder Steve Wilkins). Real historians were not impressed, nor amused. George Grant supported his ideas, which is not a mark of quality or veracity. (There were even some instances of inaccurate and misleading citations in the tract; who would have suspected?) Chuck Colson was apparently a supporter, however. The gist of the pamphlet was that southern slavery was not only sanctioned by the Bible but, thanks to the patriarchal kindness of their wise evangelical masters, a positive, happy, and pleasant experience for the majority of southern blacks. Wilson himself dismissed criticism as “abolitionist propaganda”.

He also, unfortunately, have views on family issues, pointing out that “The Bible indicates the punishment for homosexuality is death. The Bible also indicates the punishment for homosexuality is exile. So death is not the minimal punishment for a homosexual. There are other alternatives.”

He is otherwise a staunch theocrat whose ideal society is a mixture of Afghanistan and the antebellum confederacy, and an ardent critic of atheism for its moral failings a topic on which his expertise shines through.

Diagnosis: A pretty nasty piece of work. Impact is unknown, however, but he seems to be dangerously powerful.

#284: Richard Moore

There are few things more detrimental to reason, sanity and the well-being of people than reporters who are absolutely ignorant of science, but nonetheless think they have uncovered something the public needs to know about (be it medicine, climate, biology or what have you). Such reporters tend to swallow the manufactroversies hook and sinker, and given some POMO background assumption that all viewpoints are equal, help present the voice of the loons as respectably as possible. The consequence is of course that readers, who cannot be expected to know the science either, may think there really is a controversy here.

The problem is exacerbated if said reporter becomes dimly aware that scientists (or government, or sane organizations) dismiss the “breaking news” he copied and pasted from the loon activists. Then, of course, he may come to think that it is his duty to crank up the volume to make the public aware that authorities don’t want you to know the truth.

Richard Moore: eat your cake. Moore is an “investigative reporter” for the Lakeland Times. He has enthusiastically endorsed the Age of Autism propaganda: vaccines cause autism, autoimmune disease, and all sorts of ills, and he sees it – apparently – as his duty to help spread the gospel. And Moore jumps in deep; not only is Big Pharma untrustworthy – they are actively killing you, in an unholy alliance with the government. And he trots out pretty much every lie ever peddled by the antivaxx movement (e.g. the numbers of cases of autism must have increased, for where are the adult autistics? Well, maybe here?). It never seems to strike him that it might be worth checking his sources. First, vaccines cause autism (and kills), then BigPharma ‘release “scientific” studies “disproving” any link between autism and mercury in vaccines”. See? Conspiracy proven. Of course, being completely scientifically ignorant, Moore is unable to point out any actual scientific flaw in any of the studies, but since they don’t agree with the position he has intuited himself into, there must – must! – be a conspiracy.

Moore is not alone, of course. The attitude is frighteningly common. With respect to antivaxx, the most egregious examples include the delusional and utterly moronic reporter (who currently enjoys intimate ties with the antivaxx organizations) Sharyl Attkisson in addition to the usual suspects, already covered or to be covered, Kirby and Olmsted. Steve Wilson of WXYZ-TV in Detroit is another example.

Diagnosis: A very common example of investigative reporting gone awry because the reporter is completely ignorant about the topic and assumes that if two fractions disagree, then their viewpoints are by default equally valid and justified. I am willing to claim that reporters like him constitute one of the major threats to modern civilization.

#697: Charlotte Gerson

Gerson therapy is a treatment regimen of which it is claimed that it is able to cure even severe cases of cancer through a special diet, coffee enemas, and various supplements. It does, of course, not cure cancer, but Charlotte Gerson – the current main promoter – has anecdotes! The treatments is named after the German crank Max Gerson. Charlotte is his daughter.

In 1977, Charlotte Gerson co-founded the Gerson Institute, which oversees The Baja Nutri Care Clinic in Tijuana, Mexico. Yup. It is illegal for a clinic to offer the Gerson treatment as a cancer cure in the U.S., for obvious reasons – it does not cure cancer, for instance, and it is rather dangerous (the Wikipedia article is actually decent). Charlotte Gerson is not a medical doctor, of course, but trains people in the Gerson method, lectures on the alleged benefits of the therapy and the conspiracy of evil forces trying to suppress her. She has written plenty of leaflets containing anecdotes and testimonials, but has done no studies and evidently doesn’t quite realize why anecdotes are not evidence and why real, controlled studies would be needed. She has also written a book on the Gerson therapy (with her son Howard Strauss, who also wrote a biography of old Max).

The appeal of the Gerson therapy is primarily a matter of fallacious appeals to nature (cancer is allegedly caused by “toxins”; also here), and Max Gerson managed to obtain the approval of several celebrities of his time (today the therapy is at least notably backed by some notorious moron called Charles). As with most crackpot treatments Gerson was also careful not to do any controlled studies but instead apply selection bias and rely on subjective validation, which is great, since in the case of alleged cancer treatments the failures won’t be widely advertised insofar as those patients won’t usually be there to provide critical testimonials (see also this). The Gerson therapy is covered in detail here.

Stay away from Steve Kroschel’s ghastly conspiracy theory pseudo-documentary commercial for the therapy called “The beautiful truth”. The movie is pretty much an altmed version of Expelled, and the collection of fallacies, distortions, and conspiracy mongering would be hilarious were its potential impact not so frightening. It is discussed here and here, and here. In order to make sure his idiocy is sufficiently garishly displayed Kroschel throws in plenty of other crackpottery as well. It is nevertheless endorsed, apparently, by Charlotte Gerson, Howard Strauss and the Gerson Institutes’s executive director Anita Wilson.

The Gerson therapy is a repertoire mainstay at quackwatch.

Diagnosis: Completely delusional crackpot, exhibiting such ignorance of science and evidence, and insulation to truth and reality that it shocks even hardened loon investigators. The Gerson therapy is sufficiently popular for Charlotte Gerson to be deemed extremely dangerous.