Did Kathleen Sebelius Pressure Media to Deny Vaccine Safety Voices?

By Jake Crosby

"There are groups out there that insist that vaccines are responsible for a variety of problems despite all scientific evidence to the contrary. We have reached out to media outlets to try to get them to not give the views of these people equal weight in their reporting to what science has shown and continues to show about the safety of vaccines,” (HERE) according to HHS Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, in her interview with Arthur Allen for The Reader’s Digest, on February 5th of this year. Sebelius basically admitted to pressuring media outlets to report disinformation to the public in place of information that does not support the safety of the government’s most heavily promoted drug. As shocking as this statement was the first time I read it, I honestly could have predicted such a scenario.

One year ago, I wrote a short post for Age of Autism entitled “History Suggests HHS Candidate Not Unbiased on Thimerosal-Vaccine Issue,” amidst the Brian Deer-concocted hysteria and the flurry over autism cases in vaccine court. It was written in response to a number of disturbing things I read at the time about members of her staff dismissing concerns about thimerosal when she was Governor of Kansas. I was disappointed with the lack of mobilization in response to my post, though the timing of her nomination was very unfortunate. What was especially disappointing was that she replaced Senator Tom Daschle, who helped kill the Homeland Security Rider that would have protected thimerosal manufacturers such as Eli Lilly from litigation.

Worst of all, I was right. When I first saw her interviewed for CBS by Katie Couric last year, Sebelius confirmed that she was biased when she insisted thimerosal was safe. I was disappointed, but not shocked. Now as it turns out, she not only believes thimerosal is safe, but is getting the media outlets to say so for her. The New York Times, The LA Times, The Chicago Tribune, USA Today, The Washington Post, TIME, Wired…I can only guess!

It goes without saying that the government is no more entitled to its share of media coverage than consumer groups are. That news reporters are even following through on the government’s demands is unacceptable and in violation of journalism ethics.

Government officials like Sebelius have also launched a very successful two-pronged campaign so far. The first is one of positive publicity and self-promotion, selling themselves as the “experts” in autism. In reality, public health officials are not experts in autism at all, and Sebelius’ specialty is in insurance, which means her background does not even give her the most vague knowledge about autism. Meanwhile, Paul Offit feigns authority in a favorite argumentative technique claiming, “Science is best left to scientists.” Yet the real scope of his knowledge is made clear on posts he had written for “Science”Blogs, in which he said he learned about autism primarily through newspapers and lay people with personal connections to the disorder.

Looks like he’s not much of a scientist after all. So we are the real experts on autism, the ones who actually take the time to educate ourselves about this disorder and actively pursue relevant information about the condition. That’s not to say having an MD cannot be a huge plus, though it can also be a huge minus, simply that actively pursuing information about autism, be it in books or on the internet, not passively reading about it in the news, is what really counts. As the consumer voice on this issue we should have every bit as much of a say as does government. The second PR game of the government’s is a negative publicity campaign against the consumer advocates. It basically builds on its previous tactic of feigning credibility and expertise where it has none, and from that they develop their claim that by daring to disagree with them, we are unreceptive to criticism. This is exactly the kind of argument officials like Sebelius have been making. What more can one expect from a government official whose pet healthcare plan has received an $80 billion pledge from the drug industry? In reality, it is nothing more than a bizarre brand of newspeak the government and industry has been engaging in for some time: being unreceptive to all criticism of the blatant tobacco science defending vaccines, and then proceeding to stifle that criticism by projecting their lack of reception onto their critics. Needless to say, if Sebelius and the rest of the government really had science on their side they would not have to go to great lengths of telling media outlets to stifle evidence unfavorable to them. In fact, nothing would serve their viewpoint better than an article that stacks up their arguments next to our arguments and allow readers to draw their own conclusions, if they had the facts on their side that is. Perhaps that is why they despised David Kirby’s book, “Evidence of Harm,” so much.

On the bright side, at least Sebelius’ quote explains why the past year has been a particularly terrible one in terms of media coverage. We need to send our own message out to the media, to not listen to this conflicted government that shields drug companies from vaccine litigation, and promotes vaccines in a way unlike any other drugs. They need to be pressured to do their jobs as the media watchdogs of public health, not lapdogs as even The New York Times’ Nicolas Kristof admits, who then proves his own point by saying the vaccine-autism link has been “discredited.” The government’s easily debunk-able myth that all scientific evidence points to vaccines being safe must be dispelled with scientific evidence that some vaccines are not safe, especially the government’s own court concessions that vaccines cause autism to show it is doing one thing, while saying another.

In the meantime, lessons must be learned so another Sebelius-type does not get assigned to a position in the Presidential Administration. The Senate confirmation of Ari Ne’eman to the National Council on Disability is still pending. We have to do all we can to resist this and pressure our senators to reject his nomination outright.

Jake Crosby is a history student with Asperger Syndrome at Brandeis University, and Contributing Editor to Age of Autism

Comments

[Taximom]

Hey, Jake, the link to the Reader's Digest article quoting Ms. Sibelius no longer works.

I am assuming that they are trying to cover up all traces of what she really said, now that they realize that it's been made public....

I hope you can write more about this specific occurrence.

[Just a mother]

This is what medical fascism is.Poison the kids neurons with mercury,destroy the connections between the neurons.Closing the eyes on the rising autism (also auto-immune disorders and alzheimers too)numbers and
ordering the press not to report the story of the other side.Democracy?You must be joking.They clearly know that they are
damaging 2-8% of the population,some will have delayed effects,some will break under the toxic load as the mercury,formaldehyde,
aluminum adjuvants etc. bio-accumulate in their body.Now they have added detergents to
the the mixture (polysorbates),they are sitting in their lab and screaming "it is safe",never looking at the patients (to get a feedback)whose lives are completely destroyed.Wake up parents and protect your children.Start reading labels,investigate everything you eat,put on your skin,your meds,your grocery.They have even put anti-freeze into the salad dressing.Polysorbates into the icecreams.
We are
poisoned by these corporations.I wonder if this gets through.

[Jake Crosby]

RethinkingAutism,

I am an autistic person, and Ari Ne'eman does not speak for me.

[For Maggie]

She was the Governor of Kansas. Prior to being Governor she was the state's Insurance Commissioner. If I remember correctly, this is unusal because she is a Democrat and Kansas is typically a Republican state. Her husband was (maybe still is?) a Judge I believe and I believe her father was in politics in Ohio.

[RethinkingAutism]

What is wrong with Ari Ne'eman. Why do you want to stop autistic people speaking for themselves.

[Birgit Calhoun]

The only surprising thing here is that Sebelius' urging the press to "not give equal weight to these people" is that it became public. The media are paid by pharmaceutical, insurance, and other companies. That's how they survive. There is no independent press. I am not sure there ever was one.

Mercury in all medicines as well as amalgams has been treated as if it were unimportant, as if the dose makes the poison, and that mercury is not all that dangerous. There even have been studies showing that mercury is good for the developing brain (True!). Pharmaceutical companies do it with any substance that hurts their bottom line.

In the same vein one might think the recent surge of interest in Vitamin D would be left alone. But as you might see in a recent Chicago Tribune article, doubt is cast on the validity of all the recent discoveries implicating Vitamin D deficiency. Pharmaceutical companies are afraid of losing a niche market that as of now has been unregulated.

The connection of mercury and Vitamin D is not farfetched. Mercury causes kidney failure which in turn causes Vitamin D hormone (calcitriol) deficiency and with that glutathione deficiency. The foreign press is not quite as cowed.

Thanks for the article!

[Jake Crosby]

encore! encore!

[Kathy Blanco]

Oh Kathleen, Kathleen, how transparent can you be?
Working for the government, vaccines, your own interests, what a trilogy?
Says you, we are cooks and loony cranks
Deservant of no voice or wide appeal, gee thanks
Stifle the little children, forbid them.. gee how nice
Suffer them, let them be a living sacrifice
They have no voice,
they have no choice
they are acceptible losses to most
And will continue to haunt your your business plan like a scary midnight ghost
Can you silent the angry outcry?
Can you just let these children suffer and die?
Censorship is what you want to make it alright?
I must ask? How can you sleep at night?
Stifle the free speech, what a free world I live in today?
Where children are less deserved of attention, than an acceloratored car on a highway?
Where animals and pets get more attention of health affects
Than a child who is a pin cushion and immune damaged wrecks
Oh Kathleen, Kathleen, your way too deep now to turn back
Can you remember your last lie, or do you always have to think fast?
You yield some power, your on a power mind trip
frankly my darling, you make me and others sick
Corruption is entrenched from the vaccine makers to you
All are complicit, and in danger of the bold and revealing truths
If they come in my lifetime, a miracle that would be
But I won't hold my breathe as long as you are standing watching over the vaccine zealotry
If you are afraid of these very truths on the verge
Perhaps a quick kick in the pants would give you that bold courage
To stand up to your bosses that sit in yonder leather chairs
As they sit and laugh at little moms and dads who have no power to change these sad affairs
Ah yes, Kathleen, we may share a name it's true
But, you are the most indecent human being I know, and I am glad I am not YOU!
Health, and Human Services, oh is that right you say?
Your whole agency is a farce, a whacky beholden to pharmalot ways
My taxes are paying your salary, oh how I disgust at the thought
It's not the world of freedom that I was taught
Where people have a voice, decide on what laws govern right
Oh Kathleen, Kathleen, HOW DO you sleep at night?

[Twyla]

It's amazing that KS feels perfectly fine about saying, "We have reached out to media outlets to try to get them to not give the views of these people equal weight in their reporting..." We are called paranoid conspiracy theorists, but there it is in black & white, our HHS secretary saying that she is attempting to censor this story. And apparently her (and others') attempts have been quite successful.

Reminds me of the 2005 article "Drug Test" from the Columbia Journalism Review - a quote:
"A reporter for a major media outlet, who did not want to be identified for fear of retribution, told me that covering the thimerosal controversy had been nearly 'career-ending'... 'For some reason giving any sort of credence to the side that says there's a legitimate question here - I don't know how it becomes this untouchable story, I mean that's what we do, so I don't understand why this story is more touchy than any story I've ever done.'"
http://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/2005/10/columbia-journalism-review-on.html

Thanks, Jake, well said!

[michael framson]

Katie: "Sebellius should be ashamed of herself".....but she is not. Shame is not in her genes or the genes of authoritarian arrogant vaccination bastards. What they want is the 11th commandment. Obey,vaccinate,obey.

Julie, how long before the internet sites are shut down after multinational corporations/governments fabricate some malevolent decree, which shuts down web sites. Just look at all the decrees which were issued directed at Jews after Kristallnacht.

And to add this to Jake's article: . http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/02/health/02flu.html?hp
About 40 members of the national press took part in the Washington, DC, event, which included some online flu blogs and news services..............Discussions during the three exercise modules "were off the record" so that federal officials could freely discuss their responses to potential communications problems.

Who from the press besides Forest Sawyer attended these events? Eight were held around the country. Was Sheryl Atkinson invited?