Chiropractic, Trashed Again

When will it ever end? There seems to be an endless flow of negative publicity aimed at chiropractic these days. It seems that every day the media reports how we cause strokes and harm little children, that our treatments have no value, and that our claims to help people with non-musculoskeletal conditions are just so much unproven hooey.

The latest was a television programme which aired June 4th on the US public network, PBS. This one was way over the top! The show is called Scientific American Frontiers and featured as an authoritative host, ex-M.A.S.H. actor Alan Alda. The programme is sponsored by the magazine Scientific American, which is an uninspired and largely uninteresting periodical. In the show, Mr. Alda, being an expert of course because he played the role of a medical doctor on M.A.S.H., hosted a thorough slam on chiropractic in the most biased and one-sided attack seen in years.

Regular readers of this topic may know that likely I did not actually see this programme, as I do not have a television. I haven't watched TV in over 5 years. News journalism of this ilk contributed much towards my decision to rid myself of that particular bad habit. That and just about every other inanity by which television is characterized. However, even though I did not watch it personally, I have read enough commentary on it and seen all too many like it in the past that I feel fairly certain I can imagine just how it went.

During the programme, viewers were told in calm and reasoning tones that there simply is no scientific basis for chiropractic. It is a hoax, full of hucksterism and flimflam. There was absolutely no credence given to any research that has proven chiropractic to be an effective treatment for several common spinal conditions. Much of this proof has been reported in major medical journals such as the British Medical Journal and The New England Journal of Medicine from studies conducted such institutions as Duke University, the Texas Back Institute and the Ministry of Health for the Government of Ontario. None of that mattered. The chiro-bashing zealots took control and their minds were already made up.

The programme interview roster was filled with critics and naysayers. There was no balance, not even a nod to a misquoted or out-of-context comment by a proponent of chiropractic. When anyone issued a positive or enthusiastic comment, the show quickly cut to some authoritative figure saying something nasty. The show was so one-sided that even journalists were embarrassed by its blatant attempt, not at investigative journalism, but only to discredit. Nicholas Regush of Red Flag Weekly, an Internet newsletter, when commenting on the programme's bias and lack of journalistic balance said, "...I do not like to see my profession look like a horse's ass when it does its job."

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