Brian Deer Interviewed by Matt Lauer on Dateline NBC Dr. Wakefield Program
The Dateline NBC program on Dr. Andrew Wakefield featured UK journalist Brian Deer. You can read more about Deer at Age of Autism, the nation's first daily web newspaper of the autism epidemic (Dan Olmsted, Editor, Kim Stagliano, Managing Editor and Mark Blaxill, Editor-At-Large) throughout the category title, "Dr. Andrew Wakefield" HERE.
Link to the Film "Selective Hearing" In bringing the case against Dr. Andrew Wakefield, Professor Simon Murch and Professor John Walker-Smith, the General Medical Council in the UK listened to the Sunday Times journalist Brian Deer and excluded the views of hundreds of parents of vaccine damaged children. Who is Brian Deer: vigilante for truth or front man for Big Pharma?’ Selective Hearing’ introduces Deer’s part in the heartbreaking betrayal of vaccine damaged children by the British government. View the complete film at www.cryshame.co.uk.
Dr. Wakefield Files Complaint Against Brian Deer Dr.Andrew Wakefield filed a complaint on 13th March 2009 alleging that Mr. Brian Deer falsely accused Dr Wakefield of committing scientific fraud in articles published on pages 1, 6, and 7 of the Sunday Times. Dr Wakefield further alleges in this addendum that Mr. Deer failed to disclose in the Sunday Times articles material conflicts of interest with respect to his role in the GMC investigation and that Mr. Deer continues to mislead the public by denying his role in the GMC proceedings against Dr Wakefield and his colleagues.
Brian Deer: A Character Assassin Caught in the Act At the source of the General Medical Council’s (GMC) investigation and trial of Dr. Andrew Wakefield lies a man named Brian Deer. In his first Sunday Times article on February 22, 2004, Deer accused Wakefield of launching a “public panic” over the connection between the MMR vaccine and autism by failing to disclose his conflict of interest and participation as an expert witness on behalf of a group of families involved in vaccine litigation against the British government. Since then, Deer has alleged many things. Among them are the following: that he is an independent, investigative journalist; that he is not a complainant in the GMC investigation; that Wakefield is guilty of medical misconduct; and that Wakefield and his co-authors committed scientific fraud.
Brian Deer: Conflicted Journalist, Modern Day Toady, or Madame Defarge? On February 25, 2004, self-styled “journalist” Brian Deer initiated the Complaint with the GMC that led to the hearing presently underway against Dr. Wakefield, and Professors Murch and Walker-Smith by “lay[ing] before” the GMC what he, Brian Deer, concluded was evidence of serious professional misconduct. Documentary evidence produced during discovery and now presented at the hearing demonstrates that the key charges (unethical research, undisclosed participation in MMR litigation, and unauthorized recommendation of the monovalent components of the MMR as a temporary precaution until safety issues could be resolved) are completely without merit. Key witnesses during the investigation knew the allegations lacked merit. What, then, propelled the allegations by Deer into a full-blown fitness to practice hearing with possible risk to their medical licenses? Deere has most recently taken credit for defeating the “test case” claims in the Omnibus Autism Proceeding. Who is Brian Deer, and why were his allegations, easily proven either false or irrelevant, taken so seriously? Who funds his daily vigil at the GMC hearing, now in its 125th day?
Brian Deer Olbermann's Worst Person in the World
I worked for Sky TV, part of Murdoch's organisation, for 4 years in the 90s and I have to say I have never encoutered a more toxic organisation, filled with the most toxic people I have ever met. An extraordinarily depressing experience, rather like being trapped in some kind of ghastly vision of the future where relatively unintelligent people stabbed each other in the back for power, money and prestige. Ghastly.
Posted by: Penny James | January 22, 2010 at 08:49 AM
Shame on NBC and Matt Lauer for allowing this despicable excuse of an "investigative reporter" to ramble on and let his bizarre and brazenly incorrect facts be taken as the truth.
Deer, like Offit comes off as a paid spokesperson, full of lies and false evidence. Where was the information that both Deer (and Offit) have ties to GSK and Merck?
It is unsettling to watch and listen to people who have such an ability to not tell the truth that their reality is borderline insanity.
Posted by: Teresa Conrick | August 31, 2009 at 11:16 AM
my kook detector goes into the red whenever I see or hear Brian Deer being interviewed.
Posted by: Sarah | August 31, 2009 at 10:52 AM
Bensmyson
Indeed, readers may like to look up my piece 'Brian Deer and the Davis Brothers'
http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/03/brian-deer-and-the-davis-brothers.html
Brian was hysterically defensive about the brothers:
"Take, for example, their latest campaign: the denigration of a High Court judge. Mr John Stone of JABS, who I've previously characterised as being, in my view, "the doyen of petty complainers", notes that Sir Crispin Davis, chief executive of publishing and information giant Reed Elsevier (which owns the Lancet), and, since July 2003 a non-executive director of drug company GSK, was the brother of Sir Nigel Davis, the presiding judge in a High Court judicial review, in February 2004, related to MMR.
"The ruling elite remains surprisingly small. But for Mr Stone this discovery is orgasmic: he's been insinuating conspiracy for years. Promptly, Jackie and Co issued a JABS press release, impressively dated "London, England, 13 May 2007". It was evidently hold-the-front-page stuff...
"JABS, again, seeks to suggest a connection between the lawsuit failure and Crispin Davis. How that works, god only knows. The mind of Mr Stone is mysterious. But, if Crispin Davis had any interest or influence - which I'm sure he didn't - it would have been to encourage the funding to continue, and to allow the MMR cases to go to trial. Although JABS has persistently suggested that somehow only they were distressed by the scheduled hearing's abandonment, the truth is that the drug companies were anxious to see the cases heard in London: preferring the usual wisdom of an English judge to the frequent insanity of American juries."
http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/03/brian-deer-and-the-davis-brothers.html
Unbelievable stuff!
Posted by: John Stone | August 31, 2009 at 07:49 AM
Something Dateline forgot to mention. Early last month MMR vaccine manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline has appointed to its Board the head of News International James Murdoch (son of Rupert Murdoch). Murdoch is also boss of The Sunday Times, London, England publisher of stories by freelance journalist Brian Deer to discredit research into the link between MMR vaccine and autism in the US and UK.
Murdoch will serve as a member of GSK’s corporate responsibility committee, where he will help to review “external issues that might have the potential for serious impact upon the group’s business and reputation“:[James Murdoch takes GlaxoSmithKline role - Chris Tryhorn The Guardian Monday 2 February 2009.
James Murdoch took up his appointment alongside Sir Crispin Davis the CEO of The Lancet medical journal's owners. Sir Crispin is brother of Judge Nigel Davis whose English High Court judgement in February 2004 saw the end of British children's MMR vaccine injury claims [MMR Judge Faces Probe Over Brother's Links to Vaccine Firm - Evening Standard, London 9 May 2007].
Recent statements by UK Sunday Times’ journalist Brian Deer shows he helped the US Department of Justice present the US Court of Federal Claims on a number of occasions with last-minute documents to defeat the prospects for the US children’s claims. The production of last-minute evidence is a litigation tactic which can prejudice the Court’s view and can leave an opponent with little time to counter it. The Federal Court has previously upheld claims of US children developing autistic symptoms from vaccines including the MMR vaccine: [AUTISM - US Court Decisions and Other Recent Developments - It’s Not Just MMR]
It's so damn obvious right?
Posted by: bensmyson | August 31, 2009 at 06:46 AM
Deer was hired to pursue Wakefield by features editor Paul Nuki, who's dad George Nuki was on the Committee for Safety in Medicines which passed MMR for use in the UK in 1988
http://childhealthsafety.wordpress.com/2009/01/13/secret-british-mmr-vaccine-files-forced-open-by-legal-action/
Uncertain whether the Murdochs were personally interested at that stage - though they evidently were later when James Murdoch was appointed to the board of GSK one week with a media brief, six days ahead of Brian Deer mounting his most recent attack in the Sunday Times.
Posted by: Family businesses | August 31, 2009 at 04:41 AM
Brian Deer's boss is James Murdoch. You know... Rupert's son. Rupert is the global media mogul who owns FOX and other TV, radio, and newspapers round the world. Rupert's daughter (James Murdoch's Sister) is married to Matthew Freud, a grandson to Sigmund. Matthew is head of Freud Communications, an international public relations firm in the UK. Matthew is also the nephew to Ed Bernays who is the "father of public relations".. the first guy to attempt to manipulate public opinion using the subconscious. He did this by combining crowd control ideas from LeBon and Trotter and the psychoanalitical ideas of his Uncle Sigmund... He was also into Pavlov's dog theories. Bernays and friends make for very interesting reading in all their "public relations work" that include a wide spectrum from helping the tobacco companies to overthrowing governments to help corporations control natural resources and pollute native lands.
In Propaganda (1928), his most important book, Bernays argued that the manipulation of public opinion was a necessary part of democracy:
"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country..."
I keep overhearing conversations and reading about these public relations connections in world politics. Wherever there is a scandal or coup, these public relation and media firms are deeply rooted. I've heard on more than one occasion that these people were related to the drug companies too. And now....we can see one such connection in that James Murdoch, Brian Deer's boss, is now working for Glaxosmith...
It is easy to see that Brian Deer is happy to "play his part" to arouse "the crowd" and thus "control" them and do his best to make them look silly and desperate in the public eye. My friends would say that Brian is not the puppet. He is instead an arm of the puppet master. The crowd are the ones that are really on the strings dancing. Perhaps parents should be aware of these connections and tactics so they can ponder the best approach to helping the children.
I wonder what Uncle Sigmund would say about all his extended family.
More about the Brian Deer, Murdoch, and Freud connection..... I failed to mention in my comment above, that Elisabeth Murdoch (Brian Deer's boss's sister) is CEO of Shine Limited. Shine Limited is also a supplier of franchise television to broadcasters across the globe including the BBC, Channel 4, HBO and the RTL Group. In 2006 they acquired Kudos Film and Television, Princess Productions and Firefly to create the Shine Group, although they still operate as four separate entities. So you can see how when David Kirby goes to UK and can't get any press, it is because all these people are related and have similar business interests. Also, 15% of Shine Limited is owned by Lord Alli who is one of Tony's Cronies and a Politician, 5% of Shine is owned by BSKYB which is owned by Newscorp which her father, Rupert, heads. Again.... She is married to Matthew Freud who is the son of another politician, Sir Clement Freud. It must be nice for Glaxo to have all these convenient connections at their disposal when they need to defend themselves from possibly hurting children. No one has ever proven they have hurt children, and no one will as long as there is crowd control as mentioned below. I hope the makers of this fabulous movie someday do a documentary that follows the money and friends of those who are possibly hurting the children. If word got out, there may be less "crowd control" and the unseen ruling force that Ed Bernays, "the father of public relations", described below would be forced to repent or just go away.
Posted by: how is brian deer related to freud | August 30, 2009 at 11:37 PM
This show was pre-empted in the Mountain time zone by football. Where on the internet can I see this show?
Posted by: Carl | August 30, 2009 at 11:24 PM
I was very disappointed, but not surprised, in the fact that NBC did not disclose the fact that Dr. Profit, opps - Dr. Offit's first attempt at his diareah vac killed so many people and was pulled from distribution. Why didn't they tell us that he had to go before congress and explain why the innocent had to die because of his vac. I feel that NBC did a hatchet job on Dr. Wakefield. They kept quoting Brian Deer's research like it was fact without even bothering to read where he got his quote's from. We all can take anything out of little brief quotes but unless we fully understand why something was said or written down, then it means nothing. Dr. Wakefield's research has lots of merit and should not be dismissed. My Pediatrician when I was a child would not give me or anyone the MMR because in his words 40 years ago "MMR causes Autism". When I started taking my children to see him, he stressed to me the same thing again. Unfortunately he has since retired and our new Dr. gave our children the MMR vac along with all the others. Now our son has Autism. I should have listened to him. He was the only one in our community that openly spoke out against the MMR. Fortunatly for him, he was so well respected that he was able to further his career dispite his well founded beliefs. I'm sure that saved many, many children. It just comes to show you that there are others like Dr. Wakefield that will stand up and tell the truth about Autism and some of it's causes. God bless everyone and please stand strong in this fight to save our children.
Posted by: sarahsam | August 30, 2009 at 10:19 PM
The Dateline show did not challenge this creep enough, my major complaint is that Templeton the Rat was given way too much airtime.
Posted by: julie | August 30, 2009 at 09:08 PM
I think Dr. Wakefield is providing a great service to children with autism, their families, and the community at large. The medical community, like any other group, has its own biases and interests. The cause/s of autism are unknown - it does not behoove us to denigrate someone who has an idea that might help.
My autistic daughter, Reina, suggered from severe intestinal problems resulting in between 3 and 15 bowel movements a day. A pediatric gastroentrologist at (I think) St. Lukes's hospital in Houston TX told her mother thare was nothing wrong with the child - it was all psychosomatic. Tow months later we learned about the connection with gluten intolerance (celiac disease) and autism and GI tract problems.
On clearing her diet of all gluten, her GI problems cleared up and her autism symptoms were markedly lowered. It is interesting to note, that medical doctors saw no improvment while her teachers while those who lived and worked with her on a daily basis did.
Hearing of the actions against Dr. Wakefield reminds me of another doctor who was ahead of his time and persecuted to death. You may have heard of Dr. Semmelweiss. If not, I suggest looking him up.
Posted by: Roy Sequeira | August 30, 2009 at 08:33 PM
If he had tried out for the part of Petigrew alias Scabbers the Rat on the movie "Harry Potter" I bet he would have got the part. BECAUSE HE LOOKS LIKE A RAT!
Posted by: Benedetta Stilwell | August 30, 2009 at 08:16 PM