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Private Eye is a publication that Ian Hislop from Have I Got News For You edits. It's often quite funny, it tends to hold government, corporations and public fi
by smcl 3y ago
Private Eye is a publication that Ian Hislop from Have I Got News For You edits. It's often quite funny, it tends to hold government, corporations and public figures to account much better than most newspapers. It's generally pretty good, but it's tarnished a bit by backing Andrew Wakefield when he made up the MMR/autism connection
- defrost 3y agoHislop quietly rolled back his Wakefield support, sadly not in a front page apology as he should have: https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2010/feb/05/private-eye-magazines https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2010/feb/05/pri... He may have been smitten by Heather Mills who was the journalistic driving force behind that crusade. FWiW when I see Private Eye I still think Peter Cook.
- smcl 3y agoEven there they try to downplay it, to be honest: > ... when we wrote about the concerns of Wakefield This really undersells the situation, it suggests he was just a concerned doctor who innocently pursued a theory that turned out to be wrong. You're likely aware of how it went down but for everyone else: Wakefield completely fabricated some evidence to raise fears that a combined measles/mumps/rubella vaccine was causing autism via some hitherto unknown gastro-intestinal disease (giving some pretty invasive and unnecessary procedures on kids in the process) with the intent of profiting from a vaccine of his own. He was struck off and prevented from practicing medicine in the UK (still active in the USA) but the damage had been done and he basically laid the groundwork for modern day antivax movement. This doesn't discredit Private Eye altogether, of course. It's just a bit annoying that they have this. A reminder, perhaps, that nobody's perfect?