Monday, June 08, 2009

Shoutout to a Member of the MSM , Believe it or Not


Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer (and President of JREF), reminds me of the recent Newsweek cover story that took a long, critical look at the quackery that Oprah Winfrey never tires of promoting.

I've only skimmed it. It reads pretty well, but I'm already in that choir (medical advice from Oprah's friends = run), so it didn't really grip me. It is good to have the details out there, though, and in a medium that might reach a different crowd.

Odds are that the intersection of the set of people who read this blog and the set of who rely on Oprah for medical advice is the null set, but maybe you'll know someone who does lack a little Oprah-skepticism, and you can pass the links along. Newsweek deserves a shoutout, in any case, and of course, so does Phil Plait, who has been working his ass off to expose this and related nonsense for years now.

(Bonus: Colbert video at the last link.)

(pic. source)

1 comment:

gil mann said...

Word 2 tha wize: One day you might be bored and think "Hm. I wonder what all the fuss over HuffPost Living coming from science-blogger circles is about?" Do yourself a favor and just let it go. I've seen things you wouldn't believe.

"Nourish your soul." Shut the fuck up. How about "get that mole biopsied," something non-intelligence-insulting?

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