The Huffington Post is crazy about your health Why bogus treatments and crackpot medical theories dominate “The Internet Newspaper”
By Rahul K. Parikh, M.D.
July 30, 2009 | This spring, during the swine flu outbreak, I was searching the Web for news when a blog post on the Huffington Post caught my eye. Titled “Swine Flu: Protect Yourself and Your Loved Ones,” its author, Kim Evans, offered a unique prescription for swine flu, one she believed could “save your life”: deep-cleansing enemas. ...
Parikh makes it pretty clear that Ariana Huffington herself is a client of many of these quack procedures. Not surprising, really, given the prominence with which they appear on her site.
I had noticed that. While some of their opinion pieces and story links are lively and interesting, that to me is overshadowed by the many pro “alternative medicine” articles posted on the site.
Even prior to the swine flu nonsense they posted, I lost a lot of interest in the site when they started saying vaccines cause autism and bringing in the Jim Carrey/Jenny McCarthy dumb and dumber duo as guest authors.
I will still sometimes read their articles if someone sends them to me (for instance my husband enjoys some of the political commentary on that website, and forwards me articles he thinks I will find funny or interesting.) But I no longer visit the site to browse.
I do visit the site regularly; they have good articles and links to articles there, of a more liberal and sensationalist bent. It’s also one of the leading online sources of journalism, FWIW. All that makes the alt med nonsense more annoying.
Luckily my husband forwards me links to the HuffPost articles he knows I will like. It’s very handy and I don’t have to see Jim Carrey or Deepak Chopra.
Yes, it’s always disappointing when you find that saring one set of beliefs or attitudes with someone doesn’t prevent a total opposition on others. I frequently find my common ground with other liberals ends abruptly when the issues of science and alternative medicine come up. Oh well. We take our allies where we can find them on each issue and part ways when we must, I suppose.
I didn’t realize the HuffPo had so much woo until it was brought to my attention, because I don’t look there for medical information. After reading, I shudder to think of the damage done to people who are not medically savvy. After Dr. Steven Novella of the Skeptics Guide to the Universe wrote a scathing article on the HuffPo woo machine, they invited him to write one article…Then went back to revving up the woo machine.
It’s funny that I learned my initial vocabulary by listening to the words and how they were used. Then I moved into the second phase where I would see or hear a new word and look it up in a dictionary as quickly as possible. Now, I’m apparently reverting to the first technique. The only uses of the word that I knew of were 1) to court someone, and 2) as the second syllable of the word for the second positive integer. However, from the frequent use here, I have now learned an additional definition.
It’s funny that I learned my initial vocabulary by listening to the words and how they were used. Then I moved into the second phase where I would see or hear a new word and look it up in a dictionary as quickly as possible. Now, I’m apparently reverting to the first technique. The only uses of the word that I knew of were 1) to court someone, and 2) as the second syllable of the word for the second positive integer. However, from the frequent use here, I have now learned an additional definition.
It’s funny that I learned my initial vocabulary by listening to the words and how they were used. Then I moved into the second phase where I would see or hear a new word and look it up in a dictionary as quickly as possible. Now, I’m apparently reverting to the first technique. The only uses of the word that I knew of were 1) to court someone, and 2) as the second syllable of the word for the second positive integer. However, from the frequent use here, I have now learned an additional definition.
It’s funny that I learned my initial vocabulary by listening to the words and how they were used. Then I moved into the second phase where I would see or hear a new word and look it up in a dictionary as quickly as possible. Now, I’m apparently reverting to the first technique. The only uses of the word that I knew of were 1) to court someone, and 2) as the second syllable of the word for the second positive integer. However, from the frequent use here, I have now learned an additional definition.
“Woo.” I had never heard that term used to describe irrational ideas and explanations for various things such as alternative medicine until it was used in this forum a few months ago. What, you didn’t like my pronunciation of two as Too-Woo?
“Woo.” I had never heard that term used to describe irrational ideas and explanations for various things such as alternative medicine until it was used in this forum a few months ago. What, you didn’t like my pronunciation of two as Too-Woo?
Occam
It went waaay over my head until Jules explained!!
“Woo.” I had never heard that term used to describe irrational ideas and explanations for various things such as alternative medicine until it was used in this forum a few months ago. What, you didn’t like my pronunciation of two as Too-Woo?
I think it comes from the “woo-woo” sounds that people make, trying to impersonate ghosts. Anyhow it has its uses ...
I gave up on Arianna Puffington when she was writing a weekly column for the LA Times. Among her examples of poor thinking skills one column stands out in my mind. In the late 1990s Puffington decided to see why all the craze about SUVs, so she rented a Hummer H2 for a week. Not a Ford Explorer. Not a Lexus RX300. A friggin’ Hummer H2, a vehicle even SUV drivers detest. From that experience she concluded that all SUVs were a waste of resources and lane space.
We may agree with her on some political views, but overall Arianna Huffington is a lightweight thinker, and her web site is a prime example of poor journalism. She would have flunked out of the community college journalism program I attended in the 1980s.
Fotobits, I agree. I also gave up on most of what she says when I read a dingbat piece she wrote in the L. A. Times in the 90s about the irrationality of atheists.
I find her main value to me is being able to bug my conservative friends by pointing out that she was a conservative but realized the error of her ways and became a liberal.
