mediawatchwatch.org.uk

Homeopathy is not a religion. But as it is a belief held firmly in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, it can certainly be classed as a faith. Similarly, those who still campaign against the MMR vaccine because they mistakenly believe it causes autism – in spite of the fact that there was no good evidence for it ten years ago and that every study since then has reaffirmed its safety – can also be described as faith-driven.

Jeni Barnett is one of those. Her recent phone-in show on LBC was such an egregious example of everything wrong and stupid about the anti-vax mindset that Guardian columnist Dr Ben Goldacre invited his readers co compile a full list of its canards for his Bad Science Bingo game.

To do this, he posted a 44-minute audio file of the relevant parts of the show on his site.

Yesterday, he got a call from LBC’s lawyers telling him to take it down immediately, and informing him that they “reserve their rights”.

Now, Jeni Barnett is free to peddle her hysterical ignorance, although whether she should be able to do so on air without repercussions is another question. However, if she is to do so, then other more informed parties should be able to rebut her nonsense point by point.

As Dr Goldacre points out

But thirdly, there is a question of the basic tools you need to illustrate a point. The clip I posted was, to my mind, hideous and unremitting: it went on for so long.

In fact it was so long, so unrelenting, and so misinformed that I really couldn’t express to you how hideous it was. If I tried, without the audio, you might think I was exaggerating. You might think that I was biased, that I was misrepresenting Jeni’s demeanour and views in this broadcast, that LBC and their parent company Global Audio are living up to the standards of basic responsibility which we might reasonably hold them to, as they shepherd Jeni’s views and explanations into our cars and kitchens. You might think that I was quoting Jeni out of context, cherrypicking only the ridiculous moments from an otherwise sensible, proportionate and responsible piece of public rhetoric.
Many of the specifics are discussed in the other post, but as a further brief illustration which has come to light today, on her website, Jeni Barnett is angry at the response to her broadcase being brought to a wider audience, and she is describing a nurse who rang in to disagree with her as “vicious”. Now, parenthetically, this strikes me as a slightly unkind and inappropriate thing to do as a wealthy public figure, a television and radio presenter, with an industry and (today we see them) lawyers behind you, to an individual working in the NHS for the good of the public on a low wage, with no such outlets, and no such resources. But more than that, I thought the nurse was actually very polite, despite Jeni talking over her, cutting her off, and expressing, as we have already discussed, unhelpful and ignorant views in a rather shrill and irresponsible fashion.

How can I convince you of this, if not with the audio recording?

The full recording is available at Wikileaks.

UPDATE: (8 Feb) Full transcript of the show is available at Science Punk.

Those silly lawyers have gone and created a blog storm.

UPDATE: In yesterday’s Times, David Aaronovitch has mooted the possibility of a class action against LBC

for permitting a presenter to inflict her preposterous prejudices on her listeners, to the detriment of someone else’s kids.

And MWW favourite Stephen Fry has entered the fray, leaving this comment on the Bad Science blog:

The fatuity of the Jeni Barnett woman’s manner – her blend of self-righteousness and stupidity, her simply quite staggering inability to grasp, pursue or appreciate a sequence of logical steps – all these are signature characteristics of Britain these days. The lamentable truth is that most of the population wouldn’t really understand why we get so angry at this assault on reason, logic and sense. But we have to keep hammering away at these people and their superstitious inanities. We have to. Well done you and well done all you supporting. I’ve tweeted this site to my followers. I hope they all do their best to support you. Publish and be damned. We’ll fight them and fight them and fight them in the name of empricism, reason, double blind random testing and all that matter.
Love
Stephen xxx
http://twitter.com/stephenfry