Friday, January 19, 2018

HuffPost axes columns by celebrity doctors Mehmet Oz, Deepak Chopra, Andrew Weil, Dean Ornish, Joel Fuhrman, Neal Barnard, David Katz and other MDs

Since its founding nearly 13 years ago, The Huffington Post has relied heavily on unpaid contributors, whose ranks included aspiring writers, citizen journalists and celebrities from the Rolodex of the site’s co-founder Arianna Huffington.

...On Thursday, it said it was immediately dissolving its self-publishing contributors platform — which has mushroomed to include 100,000 writers — in what is perhaps the most significant break from the past under its editor in chief, Lydia Polgreen...

(Recently) a contributor with the byline Waqas KH published an article about Felix Sater, an associate of President Trump, that he had been paid to post. The site has since deleted the article.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/dr-sudip-bose

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/deepak-chopra
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/joel-fuhrman-md
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/mark-hyman
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/manoj-jain-md-mph
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/scott-kahan-md
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/kahn642-504
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/david-katz-md
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/dr-dean-ornish
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/dr-mehmet-oz
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/ipaulij-437
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/andrew-weil-md

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

UK Mail Online & London Evening Standard disappear stories about bogus mid-show "Heimlich" choking rescue by comic Ed Byrne [UPDATES: UK & US media watchdogs pick up my story; Canadian Broadcasting newsmagazine interviewed me; after receiving my inquiry, the Evening Standard published a re-write by reporter Martin Coulter admitting he got punk'd by a source; eight months after disappearing their story, the Mail Online published a correction after I filed a complaint with IPSO]

My original story is below the red hash marks.

1/4/17 UPDATE


John Reynolds at the UK Press Gazette -- which, according to its website, "has been reporting on British journalism without fear or favour since 1965" -- picked up the story and credited me. The article includes this new reporting:
Owen Conlon, assistant news editor of the Irish Sun, said on Twitter: “While both papers should have checked with Byrne, this was a deliberate attempt to get false information in. Irish Sun spoke to same woman. When told Byrne denied it, she replied: ‘He’s probably being modest.'”
1/10/17 UPDATE

Sydney Smith at US press watchdog iMedia Ethics picked up the story and credited me. Her article includes:
iMediaEthics has contacted both the Standard and Mail to ask how they learned about the story, how they attempted to fact check and if they are or have published corrections.
Click here for inquiries I sent to both papers on January 5.

As It Happens, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's radio news magazine, saw Sydney's story and aired an interview I did with co-host Carol Off. Click here for the audio and the transcript which includes:
Ed Byrne is a well-known Irish comedian. And He's pretty funny. In fact, he’s so funny you could die laughing, unless he saves you. And if you’re a reader of the London Evening Standard and the Daily Mail, you could almost believe Mr. Byrne had done just that, by saving an audience member from choking at one of his shows. But when one investigative blogger heard the choking story, something about it stuck in his craw. So he decided to get to the bottom of it. 
...PETER: (Ed Byrne) and I have exchanged a couple of tweets. Earlier today, I tweeted that I was confident that he should be able to get five minutes of stand-up out of this.
2/19/18 UPDATE:

Two days after I asked London Evening Standard editor George Osborne to address the matter, the paper published a thorough re-write at the original URL by reporter Martin Coulter, who admitted he got punk'd by a source ("Morgan Wilson").


9/11/18 UPDATE: Mail Online’s bogus Heimlich story finally gets correction by Sydney Smith, IMediaEthics
(Peter) Heimlich complained to IPSO over the (bogus) article, noting it was a fake story and calling out the Mail for failing to fact check or publishing a correction. Heimlich told iMediaEthics he complained to IPSO since he never received any response to his emails to editors and staffers at the Mail Online. “Little did I realize that what should have been a simple fix turned into a seven-month bureaucratic runaround with IPSO making me jump through endless hoops in literally dozens of back and forth e-mails. And after all that, IPSO gave the MailOnline a pass, even though the paper tried to deceive readers by sending the story down the memory hole. It made me wonder if IPSO chose to put the interests of a member publication over journalism ethics.”

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Screenshot from London Evening Standard story by Martin Coulter

Two leading UK newspapers have disappeared a bogus story without informing readers that their reporters got hosed by a source.

Via Google News, here are screen shots of articles by reporters Alexander Matthews of the Mail Online* and Martin Coulter of the London Evening Standard:



Last night I tweeted this inquiry to Mr. Matthews and to Mr. Byrne:

source

Published four hours ago by the Bradford Telegraph & Argus:

source

The Mail Online and Evening Standard articles are now MIA with no indication to readers why the articles were disappeared:

source


source

I'll follow up with both papers and report the results.

Click here for a re-publication of Mr. Matthews' Mail Online story.

Click here for a cached version of Mr. Coulter's Evening Standard story.

As it happens, this isn't Byrne's first "Heimlich headline."

From a couple years ago:

source

* In my original post, I mistakenly called the publication the Daily Mail rather than the Mail Online. Regret the error!

Tuesday, January 2, 2018

National girls organization "highly endorses" controversial first aid training that "may cause injuries" to babies

source

According to a press release they issued about a year ago, the Cincinnati-area American Heritage Girls is the "premier national character development organization for young women that embraces Christian values...Currently, American Heritage Girls has over 43,000 Members [sic] located in every state..."

According to a 2014 press release, the American Heritage Girls formed a "National Cooperative Venture" with Heimlich Heroes,  a "Deaconess Associations, Inc. and Heimlich Institute initiative that teaches kids as young as seven how to become a hero by learning to perform the Heimlich Maneuver correctly in order to save a life. Both organizations are based in Cincinnati."

Via American Heritage Girls Adult Training, Heimlich Heroes blog, December 12, 2017:
In honor of Heimlich Heroes week American Heritage Girls corporate office trained their staff using our Teen and Adult program!
Kristi Tatro, National Director of Girl Impact, spearheaded the training to set an example for their members and community.

AHG staff members went through the Heimlich Heroes Teen and Adult training using our new training video...
Tatro said, “AHG highly endorses and encourages this program. It’s easy and fun to learn!”
Via this clip from the Heimlich Heroes "new training video," here's the problem:



I'm unaware of any medical organization or medical expert that recommends performing "the Heimlich" (abdominal thrusts) on choking infants.

Why not?

According to recent e-mails I received from executives at the American Heart Association and American Red Cross, doing so "may cause injuries."

Further, I'm unaware of any published research on the subject.

In other words, the American Heritage Girls "highly endorses and encourages" teaching the public to perform an unapproved, potentially harmful medical procedure on babies.

I'm e-mailing this item to Ms. Tatro with an invitation to respond.