Times
Does Cover Story on Voodoo Science
Autism claim is just
latest way to attack coal power plants for adding mercury into the
environment.
by Megan
Alvarez
June 27, 2005
The New York Times gave huge coverage to what one doctor called
voodoo science by helping further the cause of anti-mercury
activists. The Times June 25, 2005 edition devoted one-fourth of
its front page and a full page inside to widely criticized claims
that there is a link between autism and mercury.
The article is the result of the anti-mercury crusade
that also led to a recent ABC report. The Times article titled On
Autisms Cause, Its Parents vs. Research focused on a group, Safe
Minds, which asserts that a mercury-containing preservative called
thimerosal may increase the likelihood of autism in children,
despite numerous scientific studies that found no such link.
Both autism stories focused on the widely discredited
claims of anti-mercury extremists while admitting that such beliefs
were unsubstantiated. Both ABC and the Times reported the link
between thimerosal and autism as a debate even though numerous
studies have found no such link. The two Times reporters who
authored the story, Gardiner Harris and Anahad OConnor, said But
the debate over autism and vaccines is not likely to end soon.
In fact, of the six studies the Times cited only one
asserted that there was a link between thimerosal and autism. This
study, however, was widely disregarded due to methodology. One
doctor quoted in the story even called it voodoo science, while
others said it was uninterpretable.
Also, in line with ABC story, the Times included Robert
Kennedy, Jr.s position using an excerpt from an article he wrote in
Rolling Stone magazine where he accused public health official of
conspiring with drug makers to hide the dangerous of effects of
thimerosal. However, the Times made no mention of Kennedy being an
environmental activist and lawyer, not a doctor or scientist.
Kennedy is president of the Waterkeeper Alliance,
which, as was reported in ABCs Mercury
Straw Man, is an environmental group that started an
anti-mercury campaign to combat what it sees as a risk posed by
mercury in waterways. Neither ABC nor the Times mentioned that
Kennedy has also worked as the senior attorney for the left-wing
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a radical environmental
group that also has an ongoing campaign against mercury in waterways
and vaccines.
Neither the Times, nor ABC bothered to report the full
story about the mercury complaint. This is just the latest round of
attacks on carbon-based energy companies, in this case, coal plants.
According to an NRDC press release from Oct. 7, 2004, that called
for administration support for a global treaty limiting mercury use:
There are alternatives for most all mercury uses, said Michael
Bender of the Mercury Policy Project and a representative of the Ban
Mercury Working Group, a global coalition of 28 organizations. The
release went on to claim that The biggest sources of mercury in the
United States include coal-fired power plants
Even the Web site for the Waterkeeper Alliance made the
same claim, but neither news organization bothered to report it.
According to the site: Complaint links power plant emissions with
widespread mercury contamination. The release claimed that the
group has formally requested a response from the US government to
allegations that its failure to enforce provisions of the US Clean
Water Act against coal-fired power plants violates international
agreements.
