Blue Crab Boulevard

The Fear Industrial Complex

John Stossel, who I have come to regard as one of the voices of sanity working in the major media today, has a real must read today over at Real Clear Politics. It examines the relationship between fear-mongering "consumer" groups that folks like Ralph Nader run, the trial lawyers and the media. It is not a very pretty picture. Nor is the reporting that results good for much other than scaring people.

Remember the breast-implant scare? Some lawyers and activists said silicone from breast implants caused lupus, breast cancer, and more. Connie Chung did a scare story on CBS, the FDA banned silicone implants, and soon many women were certain that their medical problems were caused by their implants.

How could they not think that? The Fear Industrial Complex told them they were being slowly poisoned. Lawyer John O'Quinn helped spread the fear and reaped the reward. He sued implant makers again and again until they paid his clients over $1 billion. Fortune called O'Quinn and his partner "lawyers from hell." O'Quinn won't say how much money he made off those lawsuits, but he's now rich enough to have a warehouse that holds 900 valuable cars.

After the suits from O'Quinn and others bankrupted implant maker Dow Corning, and after many women were terrorized — some so much they cut their own breasts open to get the implants out — scientists started saying there's no evidence that silicone causes autoimmune disease and cancer. Study after study failed to find a link. Sherine Gabriel, chair of the department of health sciences research at the Mayo Clinic, announced that there was "no significant difference in the occurrence of connective tissue diseases between the women who had the implants and the women who did not."

The FDA has now re-approved silicone implants, and thousands of women are having implants inserted, implants that contain the very same silicone that was used before.

By O'Quinn is handing back one thin dime of the money, of course. Got to keep those cars polished, right? Seriously, the Fear Industrial Complex, as Stossel calls it, is a really big business. But it is not particularly good at telling the truth. It is very, very good at distorting the truth and scaring hell out of the public, however, The media needs to take a serious look at how they regard a lot of these sources. They simply are not reliable. We are being bombarded daily with dire warnings. After a while, people stop listening to the boy who cries wolf too often. Many already have. I rather suspect this is part of the reason the MSM is sliding in popularity and revenues.

Junk Science, Media | Gaius Wednesday, 21 March , 2007

By syn, Wednesday, 21 March , 2007 @ 7:33 am

It’s not just media bombarding us with dire warnings, I fell for Instapundit Glenn Reynolds “bird-flu hysteria” a year or so ago, considered his preparation recommendation buying the Tamiflu and stocking piling food etc.

Now I feel really stupid for having been duped by an Ivory Tower Law Professor. Two things in this world I know, never trust tenured people and never trust lawyers, put both together and well you get ‘hysteria’.
By Granddaddy Long Legs, Wednesday, 21 March , 2007 @ 7:57 am

Be wary of any story that mentions the so-called “Center for Science in the Public Interest.” They’re a PETA front group using pseudo-science to scare people away from all kinds of foods. They pretend that they’re concerned for health and waistlines, but they’re trying to force people into going vegan. Drudge even linked to an article that cites them today. It’s a shame anyone takes them seriously.
By bird dog, Wednesday, 21 March , 2007 @ 10:21 am

Also, you may recall, drove the manufacturer into bankruptcy in the process.
By Chris, Wednesday, 21 March , 2007 @ 11:54 am

This kind of crap is going on in small town America, too. Our city council (Mattoon, IL) was just hit with a request to ban smoking in public areas, starting with parks, because it’s (wait for it) bad for THE CHILDREN. They don’t want to stop at parks, of course, but it’s a beginning.
By buddy larsen, Wednesday, 21 March , 2007 @ 5:39 pm

Depending on the method of measuring, courtroom junk science & abuse of tort law is said to directly cost our economy around 2% of GDP per year (not counting the opportunity cost of economic activity which doesn’t happen due to the need to hunker down against it). More than the war on terror, more than the budget deficit. Who profits?
By Blackhawk, Wednesday, 21 March , 2007 @ 7:34 pm

Hey Buddy, where’s my carbon credit cut of that 2%?
By Blackhawk, Wednesday, 21 March , 2007 @ 7:36 pm

Dag-nabbut. That was supposed to read:

“Hey Buddy, where’s my carbon credit cut of that 2%?

-Al Gore, Saviour of the Universe”

Fat fingers, little keyboard. Doing push-ups now to atone.