ABC, Dr Helen Caldicott sinks to mocking the unwell, Monckton calls for her to be deregistered

Helen Caldicott and the ABC have excelled themselves in the Art of Ad Hominem. So much so, that Christopher Monckton is not only writing to the ABC, but also to medical registration boards as well, calling for Caldicotts’s de-registration.

On ABC Radio National (about 25% into the program). Reader Steve, writes that “Helen Caldicott declares that climate change sceptic Christopher Monckton has “got thyrotoxicosis and bilateral exophthalmos”. She gives the impression that such conditions should prevent Monckton from engaging in the public debate. Waleed Aly said nothing to stop Dr Caldicott’s ad hominem attack on Monckton’s alleged medical condition.”

Is she not aware Monckton had Graves?

Caldicott is a doctor and also the co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility, “an organization of 23,000 doctors”. [See her Bio]. Perhaps she thinks it would be “socially responsible” to start a show where panels of doctors speculated on the medical conditions of celebrities they had never met? They could make fun of fat politicians and disabled sports stars? What fun. How about the laughs of picking on Stephen Hawking?

Stephan Lewandowsky could be a regular guest, pronouncing that non-Labor-Green fans were paranoid conspiracy hunters, and ideated nut-cases. Some ABC viewers would find that most entertaining. The rest will despair at how our tax dollars are being vaporized in the biased billion dollar organization with manners and reasoning at sub-preschooler levels, impoverishing public policy by suppressing non-pc facts.

- Jo

Christopher Monckton writes to the ABC

I should be grateful if the ABC would investigate and respond to each of the following grounds of complaint against it for broadcasting factually inaccurate, biased, inappropriate, offensive and unfair remarks about me on its RadioNational programme “The Drawing Room ” on Wednesday, 20 February 2013 at 7.40 pm.

During the programme a Dr. Helen Caldicott said: “The other thing is, you know, that they say they have to give equal time to global warming, and they have people like this awful – what’s his name? – Monck? Lord Monckton, who’s got thyrotoxicosis and bilateral exophthalmos, but apart from that he’s not a lord and apart from that he doesn’t know any science. This is so important. And it’s imperative to have people who understand science and medicine to be discussing this, and not have these global deniers often who are funded by the oil companies like Exxon in America who spent hundreds of millions in a propaganda campaign to convince people that global warming isn’t a fact. I don’t think the media quite gets it that it’s like medicine: you know, you don’t have a charlatan debating with the doctor about the treatment of a patient, you have to, you know, practise the very best medicine you can or the patient might die.”

Ground 1: Dr. Caldicott incorrectly stated that I suffer from thryotoxicosis, which is in fact now cured, and correctly but grossly inappropriately stated that I suffer from one of the sequelae of that disease, bilateral exophthalmos. I am entitled to privacy in my medical history, and it is certainly inappropriate that Dr. Caldicott should discuss my health on the air, particularly in a fashion that was, in part, factually inaccurate.

Ground 2: Dr. Caldicott inaccurately stated that I am not a Lord. However, my passport states that I am “The Right Honourable Christopher Walter, Viscount Monckton of Brenchley”. A Viscount is a Lord. When the Clerk of the Parliaments once wrote to say I should not call myself “a member of the House of Lords”, I consulted a barrister expert in peerage law, whose written Opinion concludes that I am indeed a member of the House, albeit without the right to sit and vote, and that I am, in his words, “fully entitled to say so”.

Ground 3: Dr. Caldicott inaccurately stated that I do not know any science. However, I have a degree in Classical Architecture from the University of Cambridge, and the degree course included instruction in mathematics. I was last year’s Nerenberg Lecturer in Mathematics at the University of Western Ontario. I have contributed several papers to the learned journals on climate science and economics, have lectured on climate science at universities on three continents at faculty as well as undergraduate level, and am an expert reviewer for the forthcoming Fifth Assessment Report of the UN’s climate panel, the IPCC. I have testified four times before the U.S. Congress on climate science and economics.

Ground 4: Dr. Caldicott describes me, offensively, as a “global denier”, with overtones calculated to bracket me with holocaust deniers.

Ground 5: Dr. Caldicott inaccurately implies that I am “funded by the oil companies like Exxon in America.” I am not, and have never been, funded by any oil company. My current tour in Australia, like my first tour here, is entirely funded by the contributions of those who attend my speaker meetings.

Ground 6: Dr. Caldicott unfairly and without adducing any evidence describes me as a “charlatan”, inferentially on the sole ground that she disagrees with me. I do not know whether she has any scientific or mathematical knowledge relevant to the climate debate: if not, then it was doubly inappropriate for her to mischaracterize me as a “charlatan”.

Ground 7: The presenter did nothing to prevent Dr. Caldicott from saying what she said, and did nothing to remedy the situation by indicating to the audience that her remarks – which on their face appear malicious – might not be well founded in fact and were certainly inappropriate.

I am also lodging complaints with the medical registration authorities in Australia, since Dr. Caldicott’s discussion of my health problems on the air is a flagrant breach of the confidentiality to which patients are entitled. I shall be requesting that Dr. Caldicott be removed from all medical registers in Australia and debarred from practising medicine ever again, on the ground that she is not a fit and proper person to respect the confidentiality of patients.

Christopher Monckton

The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley

h/t to Steve H. Thanks.

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