The Illegitimacy of Quackwatch's Health Bias 

 

Richard Gale and Gary Null PhD

Progressive Radio Network, December 31, 2019

 

To the average person who is seeking high quality and reliable peer-reviewed research on any given medical topic, a Google search takes you more often than not immediately to Wikipedia. However, if the information you seek concerns non-conventional medical practices that fall under the category of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, or traditional healing systems, such as Chiropractic, naturopathy, nutritional therapy, homeopathy, acupuncture, traditional Chinese and Indian Ayurveda medicine, massage therapy, etc, then you will fall into deep doubt regarding their efficacy. Wikipedia's senior and administrative editors hold the unequivocal opinion that all of these medical modalities are pseudoscience and quackery. They have no merit . Nor do those who practice and advocate for them, who are privately characterized as "lunatic charlatans."

 

What authority do Wikipedia's Skeptic editors have to make these claims and condemn entire fields of medicine that are now increasing and gaining popularity?  One name and organization stands out on Wikipedia's alternative health pages: Stephen Barrett and his organization Quackwatch. For the past four decades, Barrett and his Skeptic colleagues have waged an endless crusade to discourage people from even considering the legitimacy of these natural therapies. Clearly, if you take a moment to read Quackwatch articles, you will immediately discover extreme bias. In addition, Barrett and his network rely upon very limited and outdated research to make wide sweeping generalizations that are pointedly scientifically unsound and often absurd.