It time for those of you on YouTube to dust off the video cameras and those of you with blogs to get typing. Another libel case has been brought in Britain against Paul Offit, Amy Wallace, and Wired Magazine. This law suit has been brought by Barbara Loe Fisher, the head of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) which is an anti-vax organisation.
The case centers around the accusation by Paul Offit recorded by Amy Wallace and published by Wired that Fisher "lies". Like Simon Singh and "bogus" this word could be quite problematic and result in an expensive and drawn out legal battle. What I don't want to see is libel to be seen as an effective way to block expression or speech - especially when there is a scientific basis.
So, let's get the word out and spread the offending article to as many people as possible http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_waronscience/. It's actually very well written and worth the read if you haven't done so already. What these people need to learn is if you come to a scientific discussion armed only with your opinion you are going to get hurt. If you persist in spreading mis-information after being corrected you are making bogus statements and you are lying. That's not libel, that's fact.
Story here: http://www.ratbags.com/rsoles/index.html#4fisher
The case centers around the accusation by Paul Offit recorded by Amy Wallace and published by Wired that Fisher "lies". Like Simon Singh and "bogus" this word could be quite problematic and result in an expensive and drawn out legal battle. What I don't want to see is libel to be seen as an effective way to block expression or speech - especially when there is a scientific basis.
So, let's get the word out and spread the offending article to as many people as possible http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_waronscience/. It's actually very well written and worth the read if you haven't done so already. What these people need to learn is if you come to a scientific discussion armed only with your opinion you are going to get hurt. If you persist in spreading mis-information after being corrected you are making bogus statements and you are lying. That's not libel, that's fact.
Story here: http://www.ratbags.com/rsoles/index.html#4fisher