Re: The good guys win one...

[Guest guest]

Forwarded by Dr. Saul Pressman

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Quackbuster Barrett Loses Appeal, Leaves Town

Self-proclaimed Quackbuster, Barrett, MD, who was recently handed

crushing defeats by chiropractor Tedd Koren and Ilena Rosenthal, has

announced he is leaving his home town and operating base in town,

Pennsylvania.

On June 11th, 2007, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania affirmed a lower

court dismissal of Barrett's defamation suite against Dr. Koren. Barrett's

case was so lacking in merit the judge blocked it from going to the jury.

Barrett simply had no case against Dr. Koren.

This followed another stunning defeat last month in California. There an

appeals court ordered Barrett and crony Terry Polevoy, MD to post bonds of

more than $400,000.00 after they lost a defamation case against Illena

Rosenthal virtually identical to the Koren case.

Perhaps the fact that lawyers and judges in town are catching on to his

intimidation schemes explains why Barrett is moving to Chapel Hill, North

Carolina. Barrett can run but he can't hide. Chapel Hill collection

attorneys are already being asked to locate his assets to pay his unmet

legal obligations. Assets of other Quackwatch, Inc., principals might also

be sought.

Who Is Barrett, What Are Quackbusters?

Barrett is an unlicensed Pennsylvania psychiatrist, who, though he

failed his psychiatric board exams and has been criticized for his lack of

expertise by several courts, still claims to often advise the Federal Trade

Commission (FTC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the FBI, State

Attorneys General, HMOs, Consumer Reports, medical journals and state

medical, chiropractic and dental boards.

The insurance industry cites Barrett's highly opinionated " Quackbuster "

attacks to deny paying claims for natural healthcare.

Barrett and the " Quackbusters, " a vigilante group of self- proclaimed

skeptics of any medical or health modality that is not drugs, surgery or

radiation, attack almost all non-conventional healthcare practices as

quackery. Ignoring all scientific research to the contrary, they dismiss

Gulf War Syndrome, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Chemical Sensitivity,

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and dietary supplements as rubbish. Nobel Prize

winner Linus ing is on their " quack " list along with many well known

and respected doctors and scientists, including Deepak Chopra, Weil,

and dozens of others.

Barrett claims to give over 500 interviews a year to newspapers, magazines,

and television shows, including CNN and the Today Show. He claims to have

been a peer reviewer for seven medical journals, including the Journal of

the American Medical Association, even though he had no license to practice

medicine when he did the reviewing.

The Quackbusters run over 70 websites. Millions of people go to them every

year. Look up chiropractic, acupuncture, homeopathy or even vitamin C, as

well as almost every other natural health topic, on the Internet and you

(and the public) will be led to Quackbuster sites advising you of natural

health " dangers. "

In all these forums Barrett and the Quackbusters relentlessly attack the

consumer right to informed choice. These activities continue the AMA's

anti-quackery committee's activities that were struck down by federal courts

as an illegal restraint of trade in a landmark lawsuit brought by Illinois

chiropractor Chester Wilk. They also help insurance companies deny consumer

reimbursement claims.

At the same time, Barrett shills for products like aspartame (NutraSweet),

which is the subject of tens of thousands of consumer complaints.

Question (asked on Barrett's web site): " An email message is being

circulated with many statements to the effect that aspartame is dangerous.

How worried should I be? "

Answer (from Barrett): " Not at all. The message is pure rubbish. "

What Did Dr. Koren Do to Provoke Barrett's Shakedown?

Dr. Tedd Koren is a well-known chiropractor, researcher, writer and

lecturer. Barrett sued Dr. Koren in 2003 for calling him a Quackpot; saying

he was in big trouble because of a racketeering law suit brought against

him; and attacking his lack of a medical license in his internet newsletter.

The trial judge and three appeals judges agreed unanimously that these

statements were so far from defamation that no jury could be legally allowed

to call them defamation. Dr. Koren also said Barrett was " delicensed. " One

of the three appeals courts judges thought a jury might be able to find this

to be defamation. However two appellate judges disagreed and jurors

interviewed after the trial said they too saw through Barrett and felt that

he was a litigious, ungrounded and biased denier of the truth.

In part jurors formed this view because Barrett testified in the Koren case

that he had sued many doctors - close to forty !- in similar cases,

demanding up to $100,000 if they wished to avoid a costly court trial. Some

paid up - how many is yet to be discovered. Drs. Koren and Rosenthal and a

few others did not. Barrett has failed to win a single lawsuit in this

shakedown scheme in any of the cases that actually went to trial.

Dr. Koren's Legal Team

Well known consumer advocate, S. (Jim) , general counsel to

Koren Publications, who several years earlier had persuaded the FTC to drop

an investigation against Dr. Koren (brought at a time when Barrett was a

consultant to the FTC), organized and coordinated the legal team that

represented Dr. Koren. Attorney Reid of town, Pennsylvania

acted as associate trial counsel and appellate counsel and California health

freedom attorney Negrete acted as trial counsel.

Mr. Negrete said, " Fortunately for all of his colleagues, Dr. Koren decided

not to back down and took the case to trial. Barrett is part of a group of

intolerant individuals. I am not certain who the supporters of the so-called

Quackbusters are, but they seem to me to be just skinheads with

stethoscopes. "

During heated and often dramatic courtroom proceedings, Mr. Negrete pointed

out many of the questionable statements Barrett includes on his websites

attacking chiropractic, as well as facts about Barrett's own credentials

that shocked even his supporters.

Mr. says, " It is very important that a very responsible judge in

Barrett's hometown recognized that he was making false allegations and

dismissed the case. Barrett has cost unknown numbers of consumers pain,

anguish and probably serious harm by his misrepresentation of the facts

about subjects ranging from acupuncture to zinc. "

Mr. , who among other campaigns:

- led the team that got acupuncture needles approved as safe by FDA,

- worked with a Senate committee to abolish the dysfunctional vaccine

regulatory agency,

- worked with whistleblowers to stop the Swine Flu inoculation campaign,

- kept aspartame off the market for ten years, and

- played a key role in lobbying the Organic Food Production Act through

Congress, says,

" Our objective is to end Barrett's abuse of consumers by eliminating the

false and misleading information from his website and his entire network of

websites and replacing it with sound, useful information for consumers. "

Says Dr. Koren, " This is just the beginning. Just as the FTC battle was not

about Tedd Koren alone but had ramifications for the entire chiropractic and

natural health professions so the Barrett v. Koren battle will have major

ramifications for all. We're going to give the Quackbusters a taste of their

own medicine. They'll learn how dangerous medicine can be. "

" Our mission is not just about revealing the Quackbusters to be the

unscientific bigots that they are. We are fighting for health care freedom.

One of our goals is to permit parents to make sound decisions about

vaccination for their children. There are too many sound health reasons for

children to avoid vaccination and the government has recognized too many

vaccine caused deaths and maimings (over $1.5 billion of compensation has

been paid to bereaved families by the federal vaccine injury compensation

system since 1988) to allow a non-vaccinated child to be refused day care,

school, college, or employment, " says Dr. Koren.