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NEWS ROUNDUP: Pat Sidley Mbeki forced to do a U turn over AIDS drugs BMJ 2002; 324: 997 [Full text]

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Journalism or propaganda?

David Rasnick   (27 April 2002)

Journalism or propaganda? 27 April 2002
David Rasnick, Visiting Scientist, Dept. MCB, UC Berkeley Berkeley, CA 94720 Send response to journal: Re: Journalism or propaganda?	Dear Editor, Pat Sidley?s hope (more prayer, really) that, ?The South African government has, under pressure, relented on its HIV/AIDS policy? is an example of wishful and manipulative journalism. The call to ?stop Mr Mbeki?s supporters among the AIDS denialists in the United States from writing to South African and other newspapers? and characterizing Mbeki?s numerous AIDS programs as ?eccentric policies? are magical incantations that editors and journalists (who have hitched their donkey to the bandwagon of the contagious/HIV hypothesis of AIDS) hope will banish the hard realities of: "Castro Hlongwane Caravans, Cats, Geese, Foot & Mouth and Statistics (HIV/AIDS and the Struggle for Humanisations of the African)", Thabo Mbeki's letter "Health, human dignity and partners for poverty reduction" (1), "Lend a Caring Hand of Hope?Statement of the National Executive Committee of the ANC" (2), and the specter of the Constitutional Court decision (3). As a propagandist for the ?Omnipotent Apparatus? (otherwise known as AIDS Inc.), Pat Sidley accepts the speculations of unnamed critics and gives them more weight than the recent clear and strong statements from the president and the ANC (1-3). It is typical of AIDS propagandists not bothering to find out whether or not the government of South Africa had actually contacted me and the other members of the Presidential AIDS Advisory Panel to tell us to stop identifying ourselves as members of that panel. Instead, these journalists prefer propaganda to facts. As of April 26, 2002, none of us has been contacted by the government of SA. I clearly identify myself as a Member of Mbeki's AIDS Advisory Panel. The reason is very simple: to show how the dissidents go about their work in contrast to the mainstream. We dissidents are open and engaging; we attach our names to all of our work. In contrast, the mainstream are furtive, anonymous sources in newspapers, clandestinely set up Durban Declarations, and above all refuse to submit their evidence and arguments for the contagious/HIV hypothesis of AIDS (and all that entails) to free and open critical analysis. By putting together the Presidential AIDS Advisory Panel, Mbeki behaved considerably more like a scientist and less ?eccentric? than virtually all mainstream AIDS researchers. He wants free and open discourse and debate on all issues pertaining to AIDS. If the mainstream's position that AIDS is contagious, caused by HIV and all the rest it is correct, then certainly there should be mountains of evidence and argument proving it or at least making it likely. That's what the panel is all about. But surprisingly (to those not familiar with the ?Omnipotent Apparatus?), the mainstream has not yet even tried to make its case to the president, his ministers, or dissident members of the panel. If I were a journalist, I would want to know why the mainstream does not present its case to Mbeki's AIDS Advisory Panel so that he and his ministers and the people of South Africa can judge for themselves the truth about AIDS. If I were a journalist I would want to know what is the mainstream afraid of? I would like to see an article addressing that question. Until my services are no longer useful to President Thabo Mbeki, his ministers and the people of South Africa , I remain, David Rasnick, PhD Member of Mbeki's AIDS Advisory Panel References: 1. Health, human dignity and partners for poverty reduction, by Thabo Mbeki, ANC Today Volume 2, No. 14 ? 5 - 11 April 2002 http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/2002/at14.htm 2. LEND A CARING HAND OF HOPE - STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE ANC, Issued by the African National Congress, 20 March 2002, http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/pr/2002/pr0320a.html 3. Nevirapine: Government correct to appeal High Court ruling, ANC Today, Volume 2, No. 13 ? 28 March - 4 April 2002, http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/2002/at13.htm#art2