Is the mainstream media experiencing a surge of honesty when dealing with health issues, and particular about pharmaceutical drugs? Such is the dishonesty we have been subject to during the last 15-20 years such a thing may seem too good to be true. But in recent days, three matters have come to my notice.
A BBC Panarama programme called "A prescription for murder" was broadcast on 26th July 2017. Expecting little better from our so-called 'public broadcaster' I watched the programme with little expectation that they would do anything else than support the pharmaceutical line. But to my surprise it dealt with a serious problem seriously, and did not absolve SSRI antidepressant drugs from blame. The programme suggested that SSRI antidepressant drugs could cause violence, and that they were implicated in several mass shootings in America. The question had been seriously addressed and investigated, and there was some balance, even fairness, in the broadcast. Doctors from both sides of the argument were interviewed, and it seemed to be a genuine effort to delve into whether these pharmaceutical drugs did cause violence, and in particular whether they were implicated in the mass shooting at a Colorado cinema in July 2012.
It is a programme that the BBC, and the rest of the mainstream media, could and should have been producing and drawing attention to many years ago. I have written about it several times.
If the BBC had been prepared to be honest and critical at that time, the 2012 shooting they focused on might have been prevented, alongside many others that have happened subsequently!
Then there was the Mail Online article, MMR - The Truth, published on 27th July 2017, which not only re-examined the link between the MMR vaccine and Autism, a link denied by conventional medicine, and the mainstream media, for over 20 years, but the role of Dr Andrew Wakefield, whose position is rapidly being vindicated. So why is the Vaccine-Autism link suddenly being revived now. after two decades of denial and censorship?
Even the Natural News website is asking the same question when it observed that the 'Mainstream media is finally starting to cover stories about FOOD CURES working better than prescription drugs'. Why indeed? What are the reasons for this sudden surge of honesty in the mainstream media about the limited value, and the dangers of pharmaceutical drugs? Have news outlets suddenly forgotten who is paying for their bills? Or is this just a temporary aberration? And will they soon be brought back into line by the financial might of the pharmaceutical industry?
Maybe, but maybe not. In a recent blog I pointed out that the BBC, and the mainstream media generally, had a lot of questions to answer, "questions that will become increasingly important to people as the real harm caused by pharmaceutical drugs becomes more obvious, and conventional medicine becomes completely indefensible", and also suggested the consequences of the media continuing to deny the truth about what has been happening to our health. In particular, I asked the following,
I predicted that the failure to tell people about the serious harm caused by pharmaceutical drugs for 20 years and more might eventually rebound on the media.
"how many of these people can rightly accuse the mainstream media that they are seriously ill, or that their friends and relatives have died, because the media has failed to question or investigate the dishonest and fraudulent practices of the pharmaceutical industry?"
Perhaps this is what is now happening. The media are beginning to recognise that conventional medicine, based on pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines, is no longer defensible, no longer credible, that media censorship will ultimately result in people holding them accountable for not doing what they should be doing - honestly informing people about health, how conventional medicine is failing, and how the pharmaceutical industry has been damaging our health for decades.
So the media is culpable. If, for example, the link between the MMR vaccine and Autism has been covered up for over 20 years, people will want to know why they have not been told the truth. They will certainly blame the drug companies, and the doctors who have prescribed disease-inducing drugs. But they will also, quite rightly, blame the mainstream media, for their silence, their support of the pharmaceutical industry, their censorship of health issues.
How many people would still be alive, and/or healthier today, were it not for conventional medicine, media silence, and the unquestioning faith we have given pharmaceutical drugs.
For the media, honesty about such matters now represents self-interest. Actually, it probably always has done so. But even a too late conversion is better than no conversion at all!
A BBC Panarama programme called "A prescription for murder" was broadcast on 26th July 2017. Expecting little better from our so-called 'public broadcaster' I watched the programme with little expectation that they would do anything else than support the pharmaceutical line. But to my surprise it dealt with a serious problem seriously, and did not absolve SSRI antidepressant drugs from blame. The programme suggested that SSRI antidepressant drugs could cause violence, and that they were implicated in several mass shootings in America. The question had been seriously addressed and investigated, and there was some balance, even fairness, in the broadcast. Doctors from both sides of the argument were interviewed, and it seemed to be a genuine effort to delve into whether these pharmaceutical drugs did cause violence, and in particular whether they were implicated in the mass shooting at a Colorado cinema in July 2012.
It is a programme that the BBC, and the rest of the mainstream media, could and should have been producing and drawing attention to many years ago. I have written about it several times.
- January 2011. Violence and Drugs
- February 2011. Violence and Pharma Drugs
- February 2012. Failure of ConMed (12). Antidepressants
If the BBC had been prepared to be honest and critical at that time, the 2012 shooting they focused on might have been prevented, alongside many others that have happened subsequently!
Then there was the Mail Online article, MMR - The Truth, published on 27th July 2017, which not only re-examined the link between the MMR vaccine and Autism, a link denied by conventional medicine, and the mainstream media, for over 20 years, but the role of Dr Andrew Wakefield, whose position is rapidly being vindicated. So why is the Vaccine-Autism link suddenly being revived now. after two decades of denial and censorship?
Even the Natural News website is asking the same question when it observed that the 'Mainstream media is finally starting to cover stories about FOOD CURES working better than prescription drugs'. Why indeed? What are the reasons for this sudden surge of honesty in the mainstream media about the limited value, and the dangers of pharmaceutical drugs? Have news outlets suddenly forgotten who is paying for their bills? Or is this just a temporary aberration? And will they soon be brought back into line by the financial might of the pharmaceutical industry?
Maybe, but maybe not. In a recent blog I pointed out that the BBC, and the mainstream media generally, had a lot of questions to answer, "questions that will become increasingly important to people as the real harm caused by pharmaceutical drugs becomes more obvious, and conventional medicine becomes completely indefensible", and also suggested the consequences of the media continuing to deny the truth about what has been happening to our health. In particular, I asked the following,
- how many people have taken pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines because they have not been made aware of the dangers?
- how many people have taken conventional medication for illness for years in the belief that it would make them better - because no-one has ever questioned this assumption?
- how many people have suffered the side effects, adverse reactions, and really the illness and disease, that are being caused by pharmaceutical medicine?
I predicted that the failure to tell people about the serious harm caused by pharmaceutical drugs for 20 years and more might eventually rebound on the media.
"how many of these people can rightly accuse the mainstream media that they are seriously ill, or that their friends and relatives have died, because the media has failed to question or investigate the dishonest and fraudulent practices of the pharmaceutical industry?"
So the media is culpable. If, for example, the link between the MMR vaccine and Autism has been covered up for over 20 years, people will want to know why they have not been told the truth. They will certainly blame the drug companies, and the doctors who have prescribed disease-inducing drugs. But they will also, quite rightly, blame the mainstream media, for their silence, their support of the pharmaceutical industry, their censorship of health issues.
How many people would still be alive, and/or healthier today, were it not for conventional medicine, media silence, and the unquestioning faith we have given pharmaceutical drugs.
For the media, honesty about such matters now represents self-interest. Actually, it probably always has done so. But even a too late conversion is better than no conversion at all!