Dishonest Alliance for Human Research Protection

Today the Alliance for Human Research Protection deceived the members of its email list. Their email blast criticized The Washington Times for running an oped by a doctor who is a convicted felon. Fair criticism. If we had known, we wouldn't have run it. It isn't likely that we will run op-eds by the American Council on Science and Health in the future.

But before the email blast criticizing The Times, the Alliance for Human Research Protection knew that that the Times was going to run a note to readers, that we did not know about the author's criminal record and that we would not have run the article had we known. They didn't include those little facts because a newspaper responding in an ethical manner doesn't make for a very exciting email alert.

That the AHRP would hold back facts from its readers, isn't a surprise because the former board member of the group who contacted The Washington Times didn't identify himself either. He contacted us as joe reader.

This is how we treat an average reader when they raise a serious issue. At 10:50, Allen Jones, a former board member of the AHRP sent an email to our letters account raising the issue. At 1:10, I responded that I would look into the issue. At 2:30 I let Jones know what actions we would take. Case closed.

Not so much.

At 2:54, the AHRP launched its email blast attacking us.

No doubt AHRP will claim it was a coincidence. When I called Allen Jones he did, but he also admitted that he had been in contact with the AHRP and that he knew their email blast was in the works.

In the scheme of things, this isn't anything big, but it shows you how much AHRP cares about being accurate.