Praise for This Book Lying for Fun and Profit; the Truth about the Media By Kurt Butler “Indispensable, entertaining, funny, fun to read, lucid….. hits with hammer force, ….a page turner, causes the reader to cringe and well with rage. This pearl of a book should be widely read.” Wallace Sampson, MD, Professor of Medicine, Stanford University. “…..This great book exposes the lucrative promotion of fads and frauds by the deluded and dishonest who peddle pseudoscience in the media. Butler can expect a blizzard of spewed venom from promoters of quackery.” Victor Herbert, MD, JD, MACP, Professor of Medicine, Mount Sinai/New York University Medical Center. Praise for another Book by Kurt Butler A Consumer’s Guide to Alternative Medicine A Close Look at Homeopathy, Acupuncture, Faith-Healing and Other Unconventional Treatments By Kurt Butler This is an encyclopedic exposé of nutrition scams, health hoaxes, and quackery in all its forms. Lays bare the myths and madness that defraud a naive public and siphon off billions of health-care dollars. “Five stars!” – Cooking Light “A great book” – American Journal of Health Promotion “Excellent!” – National Council against Health Fraud “Superb!” – New England Journal of Medicine For more about A Consumer’s Guide to Alternative Medicine, click here. For information about my novel on tyranny and blowback, Barbarians in Paradise/Terror Comes to Maui, click here. Lying For Fun and Profit The Truth about the Media by Kurt Butler Lying for Fun and Profit: the Truth about the Media Copyright © 1999 by Kurt Butler. All rights reserved. ISBN 0-9673281-0-1 E-book version published in 2016 Distributed by Smashwords Smashwords Edition License Note: Thank you for downloading this e-book. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. Thank you for your support. About the Author Kurt Butler grew up in Hawaii and lives there now on the island of Maui. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in physiology from the University of California and a Master of Science degree in nutrition from the University of Hawaii. For more about Kurt Butler click here. TABLE OF CONTENTS (Each entry is linked to the item in the text. To reach the item click or CTRL-click on it. To return to this Table of Contents after clicking on one of these links, simply click, or CTRL-click, on the item you were taken to.) INTRODUCTION TO E-BOOK EDITION CHAPTER ONE: LET THEM READ HOGWASH Dinosaurs, Werewolves and UFOs The Maui News , a Prototypical Postmodern Paper The Fountain of Youth in a Tea Cup A Star-Trek Diagnostic Device Promoting Fads and Frauds The Journal for the Promotion of Chinese Quackery Embracing the New Age Mafia Embracing Deception and Death Aiding, Abetting and Conspiring The Triumph of the Swill Astro-Babble, the Post-Modern Pabulum A Corrupt Symbiosis Life Goes New Age Doing It Right CHAPTER TWO: THE HOAX BOOK HALL OF SHAME Hall of Shame Authors Hall of Shame Publishers Hoax Book Hall of Shame – alphabetical by author CHAPTER THREE: BROADCASTERS ROMANCE THE CHARLATANS AND SHUN THE SCIENTISTS KGMB-9, The Charlatans’ Best Friend More Dishonest Broadcasters CBS, The Eye That Refuses to See NBC’s Great Whoppers Leeza’s Lunacy The ABC’s of Mickey Mouse Journalism CNN, Crazy Nonsense Network Syndicated Cynicism New Age Educational TV The Psychic Mafia and The Pendragon Caper Raving Radio CHAPTER FOUR: EMBRACING THE BRAVE NEW DARK AGE The Mass Psychology of New Age Flower Fascism Dear Ms. New Age New Age Pander Bears States Encourage and Institutionalize Health Fraud Senator Hatch Drugs America: A Quarter Billion Lab Rats The Media Flunk the Cyanide Test Mother Jones Caught in Bed with John Birch New Age Embraces Killer Cult From Laetrile to “Medical Freedom” NAV-Positive Academia Dr. Rosenfeld’s Fallacies Kowtow to Chopra and other Sacred Cows The Post-modern Journalists Code of Ethics Naturopathy, Nazism and Nicotine CHAPTER FIVE: TOWARD THE POST-MILLENNIAL AGE OF REASON Alternative Medicine: New Paradigm or Media-Induced National Psychosis? Challenging the Foundation of Alternative Medicine Pearls of Wisdom or Goat Droppings? Reality Testing: Challenging and Rating the Alternative Medicines Guide to the Ratings The Overall Score as We Go to Press The Scores of Systems and Methods EPILOGUE APPENDIX: Journalists’ Code of Ethics OTHER BOOKS BY KURT BUTLER Introduction to E-book Edition In America there is no legal requirement that the claims made for the thousands of pills and potions marketed in stores, in periodicals and on the internet have any scientific or factual basis. The products are not required to perform as claimed in advertisements or even to be what is claimed on the labels. The principles of consumer protection do not apply here or in any area of non-MD, “alternative” health care. How did this happen? Practically everything we do, everything we buy and sell, from life-saving medications, to toys, vehicles, appliances, utilities, and insurance, is regulated by laws and agencies. But not nonprescription health-related services, products and “dietary supplements”, especially if they are marketed as natural, holistic or alternative. The truth is that anyone can put anything “natural” into a bottle and market it as a cure or preventive for any ailment known to humanity, as long as it doesn’t kill people like flies. It has not always been this way, or at least not this bad. How did the current situation, a throwback to the 19th Century, come about? Part of the answer has to do with the growing financial and political power of the health-fraud industries, but a major factor is that the sheep are so willing to be shorn. But why do the sheep go so enthusiastically to their sheering? Most of the fault lies with the mainstream mass media that have been corrupted by the health fraud industries. This book is an account of the indoctrination of a generation of Americans by the corporate media that benefit from the unrestrained marketing of fraudulent health care products and services. I wrote this book in 1999, but even publishers of greatest integrity would not publish it for fear of being sued by the quacks and the media liars that the book exposes. The publishers of quackery-promoting books are not so restrained. Because of this fear of lawsuits, bookstores and libraries have become cesspools of health misinformation. In them you can find books promoting every absurd and dangerous product and service, every miracle diet and healing system, but only rarely will you find a single book criticizing and exposing their lies. For the last several decades print and broadcast media have favored the delusional and the fraudulent over the rational, competent and honest by at least 100 to 1 in space and time allotted, and in the clear bias of the writers and talkers. It’s no wonder that the average person’s head is filled with mush on these subjects. If exposed to nothing but lying propaganda for decades, even the most intelligent people will end up badly misinformed. With the advent of e-books that can be published without the help of publishers made timid by lawyers, the truth might have a fighting chance. Unfortunately, the sheer volume of health porn spread by the media has exploded to the point where a comprehensive update of the book would not be feasible. So this edition of Lying for Fun and Profit – the Truth about the Media is almost identical to the 1999 version. The few changes are trivial, mostly stylistic or corrections of spelling and punctuation that got by me the first time. The facts I report are still all true and the book still accurately illustrates the mass media’s methods of cynically lying for fun and profit, of choosing entertainment value and advertising dollars over truth. The postmodern journalists sacrifice their adherence to their own code of ethics, their integrity, and their professionalism in order to increase profits, even when doing so robs and endangers their audiences. This book should be of interest to future historians who look into the spasm of irrationality our society is going through now. It sets the record straight about some of the mass media’s brightest news-talk stars – celebrities such as Phil Donahue, Larry King, Bill Moyers, Leeza Gibbons, Joan Lunden, Nancy Snyderman, Sonya Friedman, and Michael Jackson (the white talk show host, not the King of Pop). These people pioneered and refined the art of lying for fun and profit while still managing to maintain an air of credibility and authority. Most journalists seem unaware that there is a journalism code of ethics. Actually there are three, and they are all printed in the appendix. Here is a summary of the tenets they all have in common that are most relevant to this book. The responsibilities of the journalists that come with their First Amendment rights and their access to mass media include the following: • To seek the truth and serve the public’s right to know the truth; • To perform with intelligence, objectivity, accuracy and fairness; • To avoid integrity-compromising secondary employment and even the appearance of conflict of interest; • To avoid publicizing commercial claims without verification; • To clearly distinguish news from commentary; • To acknowledge and correct mistakes promptly; • To encourage ethical behavior by all journalists; • To be accountable to the public and foster open dialog with the public. Unfortunately, every one of these tenets is routinely violated by almost all the mass media, including those with journalistic pretensions. Misinforming the public has become a way of life for thousands of communications professionals, most of whom learned their trade in colleges that are infected with the pernicious cultural virus known as postmodernism, or New Ageism.