Dear Sirs:
Referring
to your news broadcast of 12-29-2011 at 5 pm, I was saddened to see an example
of irresponsible journalism on your stations part. Monica Hannen has done something like this before. At that time I called your station and was
rudely dismissed; therefore I am placing the complaint differently.
I have
watched KMOT primarily since I moved to Minot some years ago, finding its
quality and objectivity good. I am a Professor
of Family Medicine at UND and President of the Minot Skeptical Society. On the night of the bad journalism Monica
talked about using a laser by a chiropractor to stop or cure allergies and
using “energy medicine”. She had stories
or anecdotes for the broadcast. I have
tried finding any information about this procedure/treatment. All the information I found was on bad
internet sites and there are no reliable studies in any scientific journal. This makes the treatment Monica recommended be
classified as Quack medicine. I refer
you to a well documented site that regularly published articles by real medical
doctors and skeptics called Science Based Medicine and an article about this
very topic dated November 18 by Harriet Hall.
Dr. Hall is a retired Air Force flight surgeon and Family Medicine
doctor who writes for them and her own site Skepdoc. Science Based Medicine site is written by
real doctors, professors and skeptics and research and critique Quack medicine,
false claims etc.
As we
say in the skeptical movement “the plural of anecdotes is not evidence.” Putting information like this in the public
sphere by an otherwise responsible and good news organization is irresponsible
journalism and potentially dangerous. You need to research your news feeds and find
if they are reliable, truthful and good information that the public should have
or not. I would be willing to sit down
and discuss this with you at anytime.
But for now I am going to publish this on our blog site and face book
site. Our purpose at Minot Skeptical
Society is to warn the public of dangerous claims to public health, finances
and safety. I will continue to monitor
your shows and any items of such bad journalism will be exposed.
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