Got Doctors?
It’s kind of sad to see major media outlets get taken in by animal rights groups on such basic issues — in this case, what constitutes a physician. In this case the story revolves around Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine which is filing a petition with the Federal Trade Commission essentially arguing that claims made on behalf of milk in the “Got Milk?” advertising campaign are false. As PCRM president Neal Barnard laid out his case to the Associated Press regarding a “Got Milk?” ad featuring Britney Spears, “Britney’s ad might as well be captioned, ‘Oops, I did it again - sold out for an unhealthy product.”
The problem is that the Associated Press story refers to PCRM as “a group of doctors opposed to dairy products” and the headline for the story on Yahoo! read “Docs Target ‘Got Milk?’ Ad Campaign” and on CNN “Anti-dairy doctors target ‘Got Milk’ campaign.” The only problem with this is that only about 10 percent of PCRM’s membership are actually physicians, and the group has been condemned for its anti-scientific rantings by the largest physician organization in the United States, the American Medical Association.
If PCRM is a doctor’s group, then this site is about particle physics!
The AP story also distinguishes between PCRM as a “doctors group” on the one hand and PETA as an “animal rights” group on the other, although PCRM was essentially a PETA creation with both Ingrid Newkirk and Alex Pacheco appearing as supporters on PCRM’s “Declaration of Concern and Support” (which included other prominent physicians such as Doris Day, Loretta Switt and singer Howard Jones!) Barnard himself has in the past served on the Boards of animal rights groups such as the New England Anti-Vivisection Society, coming onboard there after PETA’s successful 1987 takeover of NEAVS.
PCRM isn’t some professional association concerned about American’s health, but rather an animal rights group bent on ending animal testing and the whole panoply of animal rights positions (and its stand on things like milk are equally intellectually bankrupt). It’s sad to see the mainstream media get taken in by PCRM’s public relations twist on animal rights.
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