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Stephen Barrett, M.D. (born 1933), is a retired American physician who resides in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He is known as an author and editor, who describes himself as a consumer advocate. He is the founder of several controversial websites dedicated to exposing what he considers "quackery and health fraud" (including Quackwatch). Barrett is a founder, vice-president and a board member of the National Council Against Health Fraud (NCAHF).
Barrett is no stranger to controversy since he isn't afraid to criticize practices which he considers fraudulent or unscientific, as well as criticizing their promoters for doing so. He is frequently criticized by those whose practices he criticizes, and is thus a very controversial person. He has attempted to defend himself in courts numerous times, with mixed results, often losing on technicalities.
Biography
Barrett is a 1957 graduate of the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons and was a licensed physician until retiring from active practice in 1993. He is known as an author and editor, who describes himself as a consumer advocate. He is the founder of twenty-two websites dedicated to exposing what he considers quackery and health fraud (including Quackwatch, Chirobase, Dental Watch, Homeowatch, Internet Health Pilot, MLM Watch, Naturowatch, and Nutriwatch).
In addition to his websites, Barrett is a founder, vice-president and a board member of the National Council Against Health Fraud, an advisor to the American Council on Science and Health, and a Fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP). In 1984, he received an FDA Commissioner's Special Citation Award for Public Service in fighting nutrition quackery. In 1986, he was awarded honorary membership in the American Dietetic Association. From 1987 through 1989, he taught health education at The Pennsylvania State University.
Barrett is the medical editor of Prometheus Books and is a peer-review panelist for several top medical journals. He has written more than 2,000 articles and delivered more than 300 talks at colleges, universities, medical schools, and professional meetings. His 50 books include The Health Robbers: A Close Look at Quackery in America and seven editions of the college textbook, Consumer Health: A Guide to Intelligent Decisions.* One book he edited, Vitamins and Minerals: Help or Harm?, written by Charles Marshall, Ph.D., won the American Medical Writers Association award for best book of 1983 for the general public and became a special publication of Consumer Reports Books. His other classics include Dubious Cancer Treatment, published by the Florida Division of the American Cancer Society; Health Schemes, Scams, and Frauds, published by Consumer Reports Books; The Vitamin Pushers: How the "Health Food" Industry Is Selling America a Bill of Goods, published by Prometheus Books; and Reader's Guide to "Alternative" Health Methods, published by the American Medical Association. His media appearances include Dateline, the Today Show, Good Morning America, ABC Prime Time, Donahue, CNN, National Public Radio, and more than 200 other radio and television talk show interviews.
Platform for activism
Barrett was the author and co-author, respectively, of two widely noticed reports in the prominent Journal of the American Medical Association. One, in 1985, exposed commercial hair analysis as worthless. The other, in 1998, exposed Therapeutic Touch as baseless.
However, his Quackwatch website is his main platform for exposing quackery and health fraud, assisted on a volunteer basis by individuals selected as scientific and technical advisors, and others.
Barrett defines quackery as "anything involving overpromotion in the field of health," and reserves the word fraud "only for situations in which deliberate deception is involved." [http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/quackdef2.html.
Following these definitions, he has written on quackery and health fraud concerns about acupuncture, algae-based therapies, alternative and complementary medicine, applied kinesiology, ayurvedic medicine, yeast allergies, chelation therapy, Chinese herbal medicine, chiropractic, colloidal silver and minerals, amalgam removal within dentistry, craniosacral therapy, detoxification therapies, DHEA, dietary supplements, ear candling, ergogenic aids, faith healing, genetic diagnoses, glucosamine, growth hormones, hair analysis, herbal medicine, homeopathy, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, iridology, juicing, magnet therapy, nutritional therapy for emotional problems, metabolic therapy, organic food, osteopathy, pneumatic trabeculoplasty, reflexology, Therapeutic Touch, and many others.
He also maintains lists of practitioners and groups which are considered questionable and therefore non-recommendable.
Recognition and awards
Barrett's work has received numerous awards, including the Best physician-authored site, MD NetGuide, May 2003.
He has also been named as one of the outstanding skeptics of the 20th century by Skeptical Inquirer Magazine.
In 1984, he received an FDA Commissioner's Special Citation Award for Public Service in fighting nutrition quackery. In 1986, he was awarded honorary membership in the American Dietetic Association.
Many academic and medical websites link to Quackwatch.Google search many academic and medical sites link to Quackwatch http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=quackwatch
Criticism
Barrett and the NCAHF have frequently litigated against advocates of alternative medicine but courts have dismissed two such lawsuits as "Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation" (SLAPP's) and have ordered Barrett and the NCAHF to pay attorneys' fees of the parties they have sued. *
Barrett is often accused by alternative practitioners of biasing his information against all forms of "alternative medicine."
To these criticisms Barrett responded:
- ... quackery and fraud don't involve legitimate controversy and are not balanced subjects. I don't believe it is helpful to publish "balanced" articles about unbalanced subjects. Do you think that the press should enable rapists and murderers to argue that they provide valuable services? *
Paul Hartal from the now-defunct Columbia Pacific University (CPU) says:
- The orchestrated assaults of mainstream medicine against holistic health care target CPU graduates as well. For example, a psychiatrist who lost his medical license, Stephen Barrett,M.D., operates on the Internet a "Quackwatch" that slanders CPU alumni with health related degrees. "Dr." Barrett suffers from a severe case of tunnel vision. His web site strives to brainwash the public and to install blind faith in the infallible authority of allopathic medicine. "Quackwatch" arrogantly pretends to hold a monopoly over the truth. *
Barrett refutes this charge that he "lost his medical license", explaining that he was never disciplined by a medical board, and when he retired from the active practice of medicine in 1993 he allowed his license to expire. He has sued some of those making that charge for libel and slander, but did not prevail for sundry reasons unrelated to the truth or falseness of the disputed claims. According to some websites, "Barrett has filed defamation lawsuits against almost 40 people across the country within the past few years and has not won one single one at trial".* However, Barrett denies that the accusation is accurate. According to Barrett:
In the 2001 suit NCAHF brought against a homeopathic pharmaceutical company, the judge doubted the credibility of Barrett as an expert witness since Barrett had used the NCAHF to pay himself fees to appear as an expert witness. The judge feared that an NCAHF victory would lead to more lawsuits where Barrett can pay himself more witness fees from NCAHF funds. In light of Barrett's "direct, personal financial interest in the outcome", the judge declared Barrett to be a "zealot" whose "testimony should be accorded little, if any, credibility".*
Other critics have challenged Barrett's credentials to testify as an expert in legal proceedings. Some also say that Barrett's occasional work with the AMA, FDA, and FTC makes him part of an establishmentarian conspiracy to suppress innovative forms of treatment. According to the book Silent Clots by James Privatera, M.D., and Alan Stang, "Barrett got his start in the bogus consumer protection game by attacking the chiropractic profession on behalf of the American Medical Association." [http://www.healthfreedomlaw.com/Sherrell/Judgment%20Sherrel.pdf
Cases Barrett has lost or withdrawn from
- In June 2001, Barrett dismissed his libel suit against Dr. Joseph Mercola, DO, just days before the trial date.
- In July 2001, an Alemeda County (California) judge dismissed Barrett's libel suit against Ilena Rosenthal based upon Free Speech and SLAPP, awarding Rosenthal attorney's fees against Barrett.
- In November 2002, a federal court judge in Eugene, Oregon ruled that Barrett is a "public figure and the defamatory statements involve a matter of public concern, and that plaintiff has failed to meet his burden to prove actual malice, and/or actual injury". The judge dismissed Barrett's $100,000 defamation lawsuit against anti-fluoridation advocate Darlene Sherrell.
- In April 2003, the California Court of Appeals ruled against Barrett's National Council Against Health Fraud * in a homeopathy case. The lawsuit was against King Bio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and its president, Dr. Frank J. King Jr., ND, DC, for false and misleading advertisement and unfair competition. The court upheld a Superior Court ruling issued in December 2001.
- In October 2005, Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas dismissed Barrett's claim that Dr. Ted Koren had commited libel after Koren published that Barrett was "de-licensed," "in trouble because of a $10 million lawsuit" and a "Quackpot." The judge found that there was insufficient evidence to support Barrett's claim.
Notes
External links
- Related
- Critics
1933 births | Living people | American psychiatrists | American science writers | Quackery
"Stephen Barrett"