By Dana Ullman MPH
Mark,
Below is just one of your emails (there are others too) in which you clearly state that your intent is to “repeat one of the ‘classic’ or best homeopathic invitro tests.” Thank you for being so clear. You didn’t say that your plans were to do your own study in your own way. We ALWAYS talked about replicating a previous study.
I’m sending you this email because it has implications for you as a professional journalist and it has implications for your legal team. I personally would prefer to keep lawyers as far away from this as possible. It seems that the professional journalistic standards to which good journalists aspire will probably be adequate for quashing the “study” that was conducted.
Do you really need this 3-minute segment when the quality of the information is so severely questionable?
I hope you will keep me informed about the status of this segment, and I hope that we can move to the next more constructive stage in doing a high quality report on homeopathy.
Dana
[EMAIL FROM ABC’s PRODUCER, MARK GOLDEN]
At 12:32 PM 8/14/03 -0400, you wrote:
Given that network TV is in the early stages of going the way of the dinosaur and that budgets have been greatly tightened I have about a snowball’s chance in you know where of getting the folks around here to pick up the tab for this I’m afraid. I think I can find a top lab though that gratis would be willing and able to repeat one of the “classic” or best homeopathic invitro tests which have been used to demonstrate the efficacy of a specific remedy ( which has been diluted past avogadro’s number), and who would also be willing to accept the input and oversight of some good homeopathic scientists. So I think that’s the direction we might best aim for, and try to figure out which test to do (re. oscillo. or !?), who proposes it, ideally a homeopath or someone from the “homeopathy community”, and hopefully, as we’ve mentioned, someone who’d also be game for going after Randi’s prize.
Thanks so much. Let me know. Best, as always, Mark
[NOTE: The ABC’s producer says that he doesn’t have a “snowball’s chance in you know where of getting the folks around here to pick up the tab” for a good study and that he plans to try to get a lab to do it for gratis. However, he was not successful in doing so. Instead, he approached Guys Hospital in London and paid them close to $5,000.
