Can Snake Oil Cure Cancer? Opinions Differ.

I suppose it’s not as consequential as the horribly botched coverage of Intelligent(sic) Design, but this Times article about snake-oil salesman Kevin Trudeau suffers from similar pathologies. As with the ID articles, if you read far enough into the article you’ll find out that he’s a felonious con man selling crackpot “cures” for cancer and other illnesses, and also pitching a subscription-fee website. But the article suggests that there’s some legitimate disagreement about whether there are many flat-out cures for cancer being suppressed by the Medical Establishment. Really, if you can’t do it right it would be better to just ignore him.

I’m reminded of the fact that both the leading English-language newspaper and leading English language television station used to give column space and free time to JoJo Savard, a Quebecois Miss Cleo. Now, perhaps because of public opinion it’s too much to ask newspapers to print stories pointing out that astrology is a massive fraud. But it’s certainly not too much to ask for them not to promote it. This isn’t just a harmless waste of time; we’re talking about a lot of people, many of them desperate, suffering from serious emotional problems and with little money, running up huge credit card bills to get worthless advice from a con artist who allegedly trustworthy media sources are actually treating seriously. (And, of course, in some cases it’s more about marketing; I doubt that many women would cancel subscriptions if newspapers had noted during the Dove controversy that butt cream doesn’t actually work, but cosmetic advertisers might be upset.) To the extent that various media organs are covering the Kevin Trudeaus and JoJo Savards (and Discovery Institutes) of the world, they should actually tell their readers the facts, and they should certainly not treat them a serious figures.