Yesterday, the latest issue of NEWSWEEK hit the stands, featuring Weston Kosova and Pat Wingert's smart, gutsy cover story on what one might call the Oprah Winfrey Medical Misinformation Complex, were one not so afraid of a lawsuit. Shorter version (though you should read the whole thing): Oprah, who has tremendous influence and credibility, promotes health "cures" that may be at best ineffective and at worst dangerous. Both media and medical bloggers took note of the story, and have been discussing its merits online. Some examples:
PZ Myers, a biologist, associate professor at the University of Minnesota and a blogger at ScienceBlogs was one of the first responders:
It's about time one of the big media players pointed out that she is promoting dangerous fake therapies…all with a happy smile, of course, and a message of positive self-esteem for women. It's still credulous glop, though.
Meanwhile, The New Republic's Isaac Chotiner speculates that such a "lengthy, entertaining takedown" is indicative of the new NEWSWEEK. "Somehow I do not think the old Newsweek would have published this piece, let alone put it on the cover," he writes, while observing that:
Those of us who pretend not to do not watch Opah {sic} have long had the unfounded speculation that the cult surrounding her is vaguely sinister. Weston Kosova's and Pat Wingert's piece does much to further this impression. The article is full of stories about Oprah's willingness--indeed desire--to fill up airtime with inane spirituality and, more worryingly, unscientific and potentially harmful "medical" advice. Suzanne Somers and Jenny McCarthy are not, as it turns out, professional doctors.
The article really struck a nerve with Dr. Dave Gorski, a blogger at Science-Based Medicine (bookmark it: the site is a great source of thorough, critical reviews of both the latest research and medical fads). The first sentence quoted here can only be described as a "run-on of rage":
Oprah has about as close to no critical thinking skills when it comes to science and medicine as I’ve ever seen, and she uses the vast power and influence her TV show and media empire give her in order to subject the world to her special brand of mystical New Age thinking and belief in various forms of what can only be characterized as dubious medical therapies at best and quackery at worst.
No one, and I mean no one, brings pseudoscience, quackery, and antivaccine madness to more people than Oprah Winfrey does every week...Consequently, whether fair or unfair, she represents the perfect face to put on the problem that we supporters of science-based medicine face when trying to get the message out to the average reader about unscientific medical practices, and that’s why I am referring to the pervasiveness of pseudoscience infiltrating medicine as the “Oprah-fication” of medicine.
Living Oprah, a blogger who spent an entire year following the Big O's advice, offers a quick reaction, leaving me curious to know more about her experience (so now I'll have to read her blog. Very crafty):
I had mixed results from the health guidance I learned on Oprah's show and there were a couple items that conflicted with my own doctor's guidance. My doc always shrugged at how many supplements I knocked back in 2008, for instance.
The article even resonated across the pond: Alex Massie at The Spectator, while writing an intro incredibly similar to Mr. Chotnier's at TNR's (all while making very flattering TNR references, so...maybe it's one of those very subtle immitation/flattery things?), notes that:
it's worth being reminded that Oprah peddles the anti-MMR nonsense that, if its supporters have their way, is much more likely to harm many more children than would be affected even if their crackpottery were based on a sound evaluation of the risks of immunisation. Which, as best I can tell, it isn't.
And of course, those kids at Gawker chimed in as well:
This lengthy article is actually far too kind (and brief) to baby-killing nut Jenny McCarthy and her anti-vaccine crusade, and yet it still manages to be a very damning indictment of how Oprah is trying to kill your poor mother.
There's bound to be some dissent from those in favor of unregulated bio-identical hormones, those who think opposing MMR vaccines is not nonsense, but gospel, and Oprah fans who say she does far more good than harm. We want to read it all: everyone with an opinion is encouraged to share, either in the comments section of the article itself, or below....
UPDATE: Raina Kelley gives her take on whether or not it's responsible to criticize a powerful minority role model here.
