Anne Dachel - NY Times Saga

When I first compared the original April 11 AP story, "Gov't Seeks Help With Vaccine Questions," http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gQkR4fS0l1M7ouxFGOr6WtrJpkPQD8VVVRTO0

with the version that the NEW YORK TIMES put out on April 13, titled, "Vaccine Safety Panel to Include the Public in Setting Priorities," I was stunned by their selective omission of any of the really glaring statements on vaccine damage. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/13/washington/13vaccine.html?_r=2&ref=us&oref=slogin&oref=slogin The intent was obvious: soften the evidence that points to vaccines as the cause of autism.

Then someone sent me the Spectrum piece about RFK Jr's efforts to get the TIMES to legitimately report on the evidence out there. I saw immediately that it backed up everything I felt about how the TIMES covers autism. What really got my attention in the Spectrum story was the mention that Dr. Boyd Haley, an outstanding authority on mercury toxicity, was at the meeting with the TIMES editors and that he came with a stack of scientific material to support his claims. The Spectrum article said,

Despite Kennedy's information, and the phonebook-sized stack of articles that Dr. Boyd Haley had perched on his lap ready to share, the editors quickly shut down any discussion of thimerosal's dangers; one person near the door sighed and rolled his eyes. The meeting progressed for 30 minutes, Kennedy offering DNA, animal, genetic, epidemiological and biology studies, and being met repeatedly with the statement, "The CDC says the vaccines are safe."

Case closed.

The facts don't seem to matter at the TIMES. The damage being done to a generation of children isn't their concern either. Supporting the make-believe science coming out of the CDC is all they care about.

I asked Dr. Haley about the accuracy of the account of the TIMES meeting with Robert Kennedy. This is what he wrote back and is allowing me to share:

Robert Kennedy asked me to accompany him to the Times and the description in this article is very close to how I remember the meeting. The writers were not at all interested in the published science. I would make a comment about thimerosal toxicity . . . and they would look surprised---but they never asked for any of the stack of reports to verify what I said. Afterwards, one of the writers, a young man, whose name I don't remember, followed me out the door and downstairs seemed interested and asked some detailed questions, but later wrote an article and did not mention any of the published science about the toxicity of thimerosal. I lost a lot of respect for the New York Times that day and felt quite sorry for Robert Kennedy who was just asking for a logical look at the autism/vaccine issue. The Times did the opposite and wrote totally supporting the CDC line that their experts had eliminated vaccines as being involved.

Boyd Haley

And here is what I wrote about the NYTIMES and autism. I sent it separately to six email addresses at the Times. I included one to NYT reporter Gardiner Harris, long known for biased coverage on autism, since I mention him specifically. Maybe the NYT doesn't care about their reputation for junk autism coverage. They should. This is a disgrace for any newspaper, especially one with the credentials of the NYT. We're talking about children as victims in a health care disaster. The New York Times has failed our children and we aren't going to forget it.

AUTISM COVERAGE AT THE NYT: SINS OF OMISSION

BY ANNE DACHEL