Counting Her Chickens Before They Hatch: Judy Stein Calls for Fataw Against the Author of TM Eggpose
The Moslem zealots of Iran may have dropped their fatwa or order of assassination against author Salman Rushdie for allegedly defaming Islam in his novel The Satanic Verses. Ayatollah Judy Stein, however, is not about to end her jihad against Andrew Skolnick, author of an expose on the deceptive marketing tactics of the Transcendental Meditation Movement (Journal of the American Medical Association. 1991; v.266:1741-1750). "The chickens will come home to roost," she assures the readers in her latest diatribe against the author. An unworried Skolnick said, "Good! I can use the eggs."
Subject: Re: Scientology vs TM Science or Pseudo-Science?
Date: 20 Oct 1998 18:49:05 -0400
From: jstein@panix.com (Judy Stein)
Newsgroups: alt.meditation.transcendental, sci.skeptic
In article B24FF74A-AE223@206.165.43.166,
"Lawson English" wrote:
> Your continued attempts to make TM look like Scientology, Aum Shinrikyio
> and "other destructive cults," only highlights YOUR moral and emotional
> problems, which appear to THIS observer to be quite profound.
It's primarily a *moral* problem, Lawson. It's utter moral
bankruptcy. Andrew got a taste of public adulation when JAMA
made such a huge deal of his article on TM--for the purpose of
boosting its own reputation--and everyone was so flabbergasted to
see a major medical journal admitting a "mistake" they decided
Andrew's article must be the height of journalistic virtue and
actually gave him *awards* for it.
Nobody did any investigation to see whether his vaunted "expose"
gave an accurate picture. It was simply *assumed* that he
wouldn't have distorted anything or attempted to mislead his
readers. Because everybody knows "cults" lie and cheat and
steal, right?
But he did. There is hardly one straightforward statement in the
entire article.
And he got away with it, big time. It made his career.
That taste of fame was addictive. Andrew Skolnick, debunker
extraordinaire, prince of quack hunters, heir to the throne of
James "The Amazing" Randi.
He, like Randi, knows his readers aren't astute enough to realize
debunkers can be charlatans themselves. Only the folks the
dishonest debunkers have lied about know that. And since they've
been "debunked," they don't have any credibility.
Who will debunk the debunkers?
Eventually, it's going to dawn on some enterprising journalist
that this is a novel angle for an interesting story.
