Date: Sun, 11 Jun 1995 20:44:01 -0700 (PDT) From: "Edgar A. Suter" To: firearms-alert@shell.portal.com Subject: "Just the facts..." - but not in the Atlanta newspaper More media disinformation, this time in an Atlanta Journal Constitution June 4 editorial... the editorial was undisguised cheerleading for the CDC's politicized researchers. The Atlanta Journal Constitution claimed that "the bulk of [the CDC's] research is saving thousands of children's lives," but, of course, offered no evidence to support the claim. The editorial quoted almost one-half sentence from my "Goodbye, CDC" post to this list last month. I have received copies of hundreds of letters that went to Congress calling for the dissolution of the CDC's Divison of Injury Prevention (presumably other letters went to Congress of which I did not receive copies). Your letters are falling on receptive ears. Without knowing it, The Atlanta Journal Constitution's timing was excellent, since our Report for Congress on the CDC is being distributed to key committee members of Congress this very week. ************************************************************************* * Edgar A. Suter, MD suter@crl.com * * Chair, DIPR Doctors for Integrity in Policy Research, Inc.* ************************************************************************* June 11, 1995 Mr. Jim Wooten Editorial Page Editor Atlanta Journal Constitution 72 Marietta Street Atlanta GA 30310 404-526-5310 Voice 404-526-5904 FAX Dear Mr. Wooten, Your editorial, "NRA firing blanks at CDC" (June 4, p. B6), described our national physician think-tank (an Atlanta, GA registered non-profit corporation) as "an NRA affiliate." Since our organization has no such relationship with the National Rifle Association, we wonder whether you were misinformed or simply fabricated your claim "from whole cloth." Since the Internet post from which you quoted me included an e-mail address for me, I can only wonder why you failed to check your facts before rushing to print with misinformation. Please be so kind as to retract your error in a format as prominent as your error. Publication of this letter would be satisfactory. Your timing, though not your accuracy, was excellent, since our Report for Congress on the CDC is being distributed this week. You offhandedly discounted our conclusion that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has used tax money to fund a considerable amount of biased, incompetent, and politicized "science" on "gun control." Your editorial did not review the findings of any of our articles in the peer-reviewed medical literature. Perhaps this is understandable, since The Atlanta Journal Constitution declined to attend the March 1994 press conference held only a few blocks from your offices by the Journal of the Medical Association of Georgia (JMAG) to announce our shocking, but well-documented findings. You may still obtain a copy of that article, "Guns in the Medical Literature - A Failure of Peer Review" from JMAG. You may also obtain a copy of our article in the current issue of JMAG, co-authored by 38 medical school professors and researchers from around the country, "Violence in America - Effective Solutions." Living in one of the most violent cities in America, we think you and your readers would be interested in our recommendations for reducing violence --- but perhaps not. Having already taken note of the expensive redundancy of the CDC's Division of Injury Prevention and its politicized "research," we have already discovered that fiscal and constitutional conservatives in Congress are not as disinterested as your paper in our findings. Besides scientific incompetence and misconduct, we take note of the blatant political stumping by officials of the CDC in their official capacity. We challenge Drs. Rosenberg and Mercy to identify the "thousands of children's lives" you say have been already saved by the CDC's research on injury. We challenge Drs. Rosenberg and Mercy to explain why they have officially attended numerous strategy meetings of gun-control advocacy organizations, but, despite a 4-month lead time, could find no CDC representative whatsoever, to attend a public health research panel at which, they were told, CDC-funded research was to be discussed and criticized. If tax money were being used to support NRA researchers or NRA lobbying, would you rouse from your editorial torpor? It is our belief that increasing numbers of Americans are turning to the Internet for news, choosing to filter and interpret the news themselves, rather than subjecting themselves to your kinds of errors of commission and omission and pre-digested opinion. If, in the future, your paper institutes a policy of checking its "facts" or balancing its reporting, please feel free to call upon us. After all, we are in Atlanta. Cordially, Edgar A. Suter MD National Chair Doctors for Integrity in Policy Research, Inc.