CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta falling for faith healing quackery | Hacker News Reader

CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta falling for faith healing quackery

scienceblogs.com

18 pointsshrikant9 comments

The title (and article) are a little sensationalistic. It is unfortunate that CNN (and Oprah and Dr. Gupta) are giving this story so much airtime, but Dr. Gupta doesn't really "fall" for it, he's just being journalistic and refusing to openly give his opinion. I have no idea whether he gets to choose the stories he presents. The part of this that I find most-disappointing, however, is that Obama tapped this guy to be surgeon general. I don't expect much from a random MD or a news anchor (or a combination) but I'd hope that anyone under consideration for surgeon general would have enough backbone to be more dismissive of a story like this. Anyway he wasn't chosen for surgeon general... maybe this is why.

"he's just being journalistic and refusing to openly give his opinion."

This approach, "Earth revolves around Sun? Opinions differ", isn't good journalism. If something's blatant nonsense on stilts, it should be called out. ESPECIALLY if you're covering health and are a physician. "First do no harm", etc.

I completely agree with you. I guess I just don't expect much more from CNN...

Who's to say what blatant nonsense is though a few hundred years ago it was blatantly obvious the world was flat. I don't see how it is harmful for someone to go see this guy even though it is complete nonsense. It's not like a patient's mental state is totally unimportant.

People should know they're paying for a placebo, if that's what it is. Otherwise it's fraud.

What says they don't?

If, a few hundred years ago somebody came to you and said, "I spoke to God and earth is not flat.", assuming no further evidence was offered, you'd be completely justified in dismissing that claim as nonsense.

"Who's to say what blatant nonsense is though a few hundred years ago it was blatantly obvious the world was flat."

It was blatantly obvious to any coastal civilization whose citizens had watched boats sail over the horizon that the world was round. The ancient Greeks knew it, as I'm sure did others.

"I don't see how it is harmful for someone to go see this guy even though it is complete nonsense."

The guy claims to treat major diseases like cancer. It's harmful for someone to go see this guy because he's a fraud, he takes their money, is incapable of offering actual help, and the patient dies.

He probably saw it on twitter.

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