DEER
STALKING and MMR
Private
Eye (London) December 10 2004
Sir,
Bitterness
oozes from every line of Private
Eye's attack on me
(Eye 1120), essentially for my having the
temerity to expose the facts that lurk behind a
campaign by Private Eye and certain other
publications to generate aggressive, cheap, copy
by knocking the MMR vaccine.
The
Eye attacks me for my Channel 4 Dispatches
documentary of November 18, which revealed some
of the embarrassments at the heart of an effort
by a small group of nameable individuals who have
tried to damage public confidence in MMR. This
follows similar attacks on me in Private Eye
earlier this year after my Sunday Times
journalism led to the retraction of published
claims of a possible link between MMR and autism.
In
neither case did Private Eye attempt to contact
me - perhaps for the purpose of asking for my
evidence, or, heaven forbid, getting my response
to what it proposed to publish.
If
Private Eye won’t engage with a journalist,
perhaps it might engage with the concerns of the
parents who featured in our programme: one couple
whose daughter died horrifically from measles;
and another who mistakenly blamed themselves for
their daughter’s autism, after being led to
believe by media such as yours that it may have
been their own decision over vaccination that was
responsible for her disorder.
There
can be few subjects laying a greater
responsibility on those who seek to intervene
with apparent authority. If Private Eye
can’t engage with evidence that, in my
opinion, shames its reputation, it’s time it
joined its former allies in certain newspapers,
and if not apologise for its role in the MMR
scare, then at least move on.
BRIAN DEER
Twenty
Twenty Television, London NW1.
Copyright,
Brian Deer. All rights reserved. No portion of
this letter about MMR Andrew Wakefield and
Private Eye may be copied, retransmitted,
reposted, duplicated or otherwise used without
the express written approval of the author.
Responses, information and other feedback are
appreciated - via the briandeer.com
homepage.
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