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Home , Ben Goldacre, Pseudohistory

ETp71_pp22_39_ETp50_pp22-39 22/10/2010 10:30 Page 34 Over the wall ... Alan Maley mounts an attack on misinformation.

hose who wield power have 9/11 conspiracy theories and the anti- Bad Science always been adept at vaccination movement. There are manipulating information to their chapters on creationism (and its Ben Goldacre is a medical doctor, and his advantage. From Machiavelli’s surrogate cousin ), book Bad Science is a one-man crusade T against the morass of , sloppy The Prince to Orwell’s 1984 , literary rulers pseudohistory and quack . In have systematically misled their subjects demolishing the arguments for thinking and deception in the field of when it was in their own interest to do creationism, he notes the dangerous links medicine and nutrition. The book includes so. More recently, commercial interests it has with fundamentalist religion – both carefully analysed critiques of the claims have added their own kind of deceit to Christian and Muslim. ‘In rejecting of a large number of cases, including political misinformation. Vance Packard’s “Darwinism”, the developing world thinks , nutritionists’ miracle The Hidden Persuaders was an early it is demonstrating moral superiority over products, Omega 3 as a pill for enhancing attempt to expose the unseen degenerate Western values. In fact … it is intelligence, anti-oxidants, detox manipulation of the consumer. Neil rejecting the itself, and treatments, vitamin C as a cure for AIDS, Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death thereby condemning future generations health scares such as the MRSA hoax sounded the alarm over the trivialisation to material and intellectual poverty.’ He and the MMR vaccination hoax. Along the of information by the mass media. There then deals with the pseudohistorical way, he completely discredits the work of is also the perennially useful guide to myths of , Mormonism, bogus celebrity such as Gillian trickery in Straight and Crooked Thinking cult archaeology and Afrocentric , McKeith and , as well as by Robert Thouless. In recent years the all of which have wide followings despite the more dangerous activities of Andrew flood of misinformation, facilitated by the their manifest lack of a basis in fact. The Wakefield (the MMR scaremonger) and exponential growth of the media, seems chapter on Desperate Remedies is a , who has the dubious to have reached epic proportions, frontal attack on and distinction of having persuaded Thabo however, and the number of publications quack nutritionists. These are dealt with Mbeki that AIDS should be treated with unmasking it has risen correspondingly. in greater detail by Ben Goldacre (see vitamin C not retroviral drugs. He also below). The final chapter examines the explains in careful detail how claims can

n be tested (plenty for applied linguistics

o causes and scale of the problem: in s

t Counter-Knowledge r

e researchers to note here, too!) and

b particular, the explosive growth in the o

R In Counter-Knowledge , Damian reveals how statistical and other trickery

n variety and reach of the media, especially e v

e Thompson focuses on ‘misinformation can distort the truth. He takes the big t the internet; the effects of free market S

© packaged to look like fact’ so that we are pharmaceutical companies to task for

/ capitalism on the way information is

m

o now facing ‘a pandemic of credulous their systemic misleading of the public,

c selected, presented and interpreted (see . o t thinking’ , ‘characterised by a casual

o and the media for their role in fostering

h Davies below), and the rise of p k approach to the truth’ . He cites as public misunderstanding of science c

o fundamentalist beliefs. Plenty to think t S i examples , Satanism, about. through their preference for the

34 • Issue 71 November 2010 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com • ETp71_pp22_39_ETp50_pp22-39 22/10/2010 10:30 Page 35

sensational over the more pedestrian mercenary, demagogic, corrupt press will On Bullshit truth. One of his striking observations produce in time a people as base as itself.’ concerns the way in which commonsense See also www.flatearthnews.net . As a fitting close to this catalogue, let me has been commodified. Referring to recommend a brief (67 pages) but dense ‘Brain Gym’, paid for by the British The Rise of Political Lying view from a contemporary philosopher. taxpayer, ‘You can take a perfectly Harry Frankfurt’s On Bullshit is a sensible intervention, like a glass of water The Rise of Political Lying is a remorseless systematic attempt to define the true and an exercise break, but add nonsense, indictment of politics in Britain under New of this flood of verbal ordure we make it sound more technical, and make Labour. It is scrupulously researched, wade through daily. He concludes that yourself sound clever.’ Likewise with the with all claims and accusations carefully ‘bullshit is unavoidable whenever advice of quack nutritionists: most documented from unimpeachable sources. circumstances require someone to talk people already know what a healthy diet This is presumably why the author, Peter without knowing what he is talking about and lifestyle is but nutrition ‘experts’ Oborne, a seasoned journalist, has not ... This discrepancy is common in public need to complicate and mystify it in order been sued for libel, despite quotations life …’ . He argues that the requirement to to make a quick dollar. You have to pay like these: speak the truth has been replaced in for mumbo-jumbo: commonsense is free. ‘… Blair’s special gift is in saying recent times by the compulsion to Apart from its rigorous analyses, the what he does not mean, and meaning represent oneself as sincere: ‘a nice guy’. book is deliciously irreverent. See also his what he does not say.’ To this extent, ‘sincerity itself is bullshit’ . website: www.badscience.net . ‘… Peter Mandelson lies on principle, Spot on! or just for the sheer hell of it.’ ‘Estelle Morris, the Education Secretary ૽ ૽ ૽ News … claimed that Mr Byers’ lie was not really In both the above books, the media have a lie, because anyone could see that what If we are to be more than mere purveyors been rightly accused of complicity in the he was saying was not true.’ Right! of language packaged in textbooks, and dissemination of falsehoods, half-truths, Part 1 documents the rise of lies and would aspire to a broader educational manipulation and deception. Flat Earth deception from Thatcher to Blair. The vocation, books like these offer a superb News places the media themselves under author asserts that having used lies to take introduction to critical thinking. They also direct scrutiny. Nick Davies, himself a power, Blair and his cronies then couldn’t include texts we can use directly both for journalist, offers a detailed account, rich stop, so that a whole culture took hold the teaching of language and for raising in fully-described examples, of the way where truth was downgraded in favour of awareness of the tricks it can play on us. this has come about. The takeover of political expediency. Henceforth, political newspapers by media moguls, whose life in Britain would be characterised by a Davies, N Flat Earth News Vintage Press only interest is in making more money, litany of lies, deception, smear, spin, 2009 has led to cutbacks in reporting staff. misinformation, partial information, Frankfurt, H G On Bullshit Princeton This, coupled with pressure to produce fabrication, manipulation of statistics, University Press 2005 Goldacre, B Bad Science Harper Books like these offer a superb Perennial 2008 introduction to critical thinking Machiavelli, N The Prince Bantam 1984 articles faster and in greater quantity, has distortion, sleaze and sound-bites. Oborne, P The Rise of Political Lying The Free Press 2005 led to the inability to check on the truth of Part 2 sets out the rationale for this stories and to an overwhelming reliance mendacious culture, with extensive Orwell, G 1984 Penguin 1948 by journalists on the large agencies examples of the deviousness and Packard, V The Hidden Persuaders Ig Publishing 1957/2007 (Press Association, Associated Press and manipulation of facts by Campbell and Reuters) and on press releases and other Blair in the run-up to the Iraq war. The Postman, N Amusing Ourselves to Death Penguin 1985 oven-ready copy provided by PR whole sorry episode of weapons of ‘mass companies. PR companies do not operate distraction’ is exposed. Thompson, D Counter-Knowledge Atlantic Books 2008 in the public interest; they work for both In Part 3 he examines the Thouless, R R Straight and Crooked commercial and political vested interests. consequences: the corrosive effect on Thinking Pan Books 1953 The result has been a wholesale collapse political life, the loss of public trust in of principled journalism substituted by politicians and the massive growth of Alan Maley has worked in ‘churnalism’. ‘The failure to provide public cynicism. the area of ELT for over 40 years in Yugoslavia, context has multiplied, and divided into a In conclusion, Oborne offers six Ghana, Italy, France, preference for interest over issue; for the possible remedies: setting up websites China, , the UK, Singapore and Thailand. concrete over the abstract; for event for the vetting of all public information; Since 2003 he has been rather than process; for the current over creating a National Statistical Service to a freelance writer and consultant. He has the historic; for simplicity rather than take control of information out of the published over 30 books complexity; for certainty rather than doubt. hands of government; making MPs more and numerous articles, and was, until recently, This applies in both print and broadcast, accountable; preventing unelected public Series Editor of the generating patterns of distortion so servants from becoming political masters; Oxford Resource Books consistent as to amount to a against and making political lying a crime for Teachers. truth.’ Quoting Joseph Pulitzer: ‘A cynical, punishable by law. [email protected]

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