OT: NPR gets in line with new admin; fires pharma whore radio host

[Guest guest]

Fred Goodwin, proponent of prophylactically drugging children to

control behavior, is losing his NPR show. Margaret Low , vp of

NPR, has had every opportunity to axe other pharm-friendly hosts and

pundits along with Fred Goodwin for a long time but didn't. That NPR

would keep on this racist Goodwin as a host (Goodwin once publically

and famously compared black youth to " monkeys in the jungle who just

have sex and kill " as a justification to do spinal taps on black

infants to find " genetic proof " of racial tendencies to violence) at

all was shocking-- now they're canning him. I believe this is being

done because ideology is suspected to go through a radical change

under the new admin. The vax whores might be next, you never know.

Dreaming's free, right?

Subject: NPR Drops Infinite Mind hosted by Dr. Fred Goodwin

To: " Infomail1ahrp (DOT) org "

Date: Friday, November 21, 2008, 10:51 AM

ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RESEARCH PROTECTION

Promoting Openness, Full Disclosure, and Accountability

http://www.ahrp.org and http://ahrp.blogspot.com

FYI

The latest influential academic psychiatrist whose secret financial

ties to drug makers have been documented by Senator E.

Grassley, is Dr. Frederick K. Goodwin, a former director of the

National Institute of Mental Health, who has for many years served as

the host of national public radio's influential popular program, " The

Infinite Mind. "

Sen. Grassley's investigation reveals that Dr. Goodwin concealed the

fact that he earned at least $1.3 million between 2000 and 2007 by

giving marketing lectures for drug makers. Indeed, he introduced a

March, 2008 broadcast titled " Prozac Nation: Revisited " by

saying, " As you will hear today, there is no credible scientific

evidence linking antidepressants to violence or to suicide. "

That same week, Dr. Goodwin earned around $20,000 from

GlaxoKline, the company that for years suppressed studies

showing that its antidepressant, Paxil, increased suicidal behaviors.

An article in SLATE (May 6, 2008) by Brownlee and Jeanne

Lenzer, brought to light Dr. Goodwin's concealed financial conflicts

of interest and his duplicitous use of NPR as a marketing venue.

http://www.slate.com/id/2190775/SLATE

The New York Times reports that " Margaret Low , vice president of

National Public Radio, said that N.P.R. will remove " The Infinite

Mind " from its satellite radio service next week, the earliest

possible date. Ms. said that had N.P.R. been aware of Dr.

Goodwin's financial interests, it would not have aired the program. "

Dr. Goodwin's promotion of psychotropic drugs--not for therapeutic

purposes, but as a means for controlling children's behavior--goes

back to 1991 when he was the federal government's highest ranking

psychiatrist as director of the (now defunct) Alcohol, Drug Abuse and

Mental Health Administration (ADAMHA). At that time he promoted

the " Violence Initiative " which promoted a federal policy to use of

psychotropic drugs to control inner city children's behavior. At a

February 11, 1992 meeting of the prestigious National Advisory Mental

Health Council Dr. Goodwin compared " inner city youth to monkeys who

live in a jungle, who just want to kill each other, have sex and

reproduce. " His remarks set off a public storm and he was forced to

resign only to be appointed director of the National Institute of

Mental Health.

See:

http://www.breggin.com/index.php?option=com_content & task=view & id=53

and

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?

res=9E0CE1DE1E3DF93BA35750C0A9649

58260 & sec= & spon= & & scp=5 & sq=fred goodwin monkeys & st=cse

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?

res=9E0CE2D61630F93BA15751C0A9649

58260 & scp=1 & sq=fredgoodwinmonkeys & st=cse

Contact: Vera Hassner Sharav

veracare@...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/22/health/22radio.html?em

Popular Radio Host Has Drug Company Ties

By GARDINER HARRIS

Published: November 21, 2008

An influential psychiatrist who served as the host of public radio's

popular

" The Infinite Mind " program earned at least $1.3 million between 2000

and

2007 giving marketing lectures for drug makers, income not mentioned

on the

program.

The psychiatrist and radio host, Dr. Frederick K. Goodwin, is the

latest in

a series of doctors and researchers whose ties to drug makers have

been

uncovered by Senator E. Grassley, a Republican from Iowa. Dr.

Goodwin, a former director of the National Institute of Mental

Health, is

the first media figure investigated.

Dr. Goodwin's radio programs have often touched on subjects important

to the

commercial interests of the companies for which he consults. In a

program

broadcast on Sept. 20, 2005, Dr. Goodwin warned that children with

bipolar

disorder who are left untreated could suffer brain damage, a

controversial

view. " But as we'll be hearing today, " Dr. Goodwin reassured his

audience,

" modern treatments ¬ mood stabilizers in particular ¬ have been

proven both

safe and effective in bipolar children. "

That very day, GlaxoKline paid Dr. Goodwin $2,500 to give a

promotional

lecture for its mood stabilizer drug, Lamictal, at the Ritz Carlton

Golf

Resort in Naples, Fla. Indeed, Glaxo paid Dr. Goodwin more than

$329,000

that year for promoting Lamictal, records given Congressional

investigators

show.

In an interview, Dr. Goodwin said that Bill Lichtenstein, the

program's

producer, knew of his consulting activities but that neither he nor

Mr.

Lichtenstein thought that " getting money from drug companies could be

an

issue. In retrospect, that should have been disclosed. "

But Mr. Lichtenstein said that he was unaware of Dr. Goodwin's

financial

ties to drug makers and that he called Dr. Goodwin earlier this

year " and

asked him point-blank if he was receiving funding from pharmaceutical

companies, directly or indirectly, and the answer was, `No.' "

" The fact that he was out on the stump for pharmaceutical companies

was not

something we were aware of. It would have violated our agreements, "

Mr.

Lichtenstein said in an interview.

Margaret Low , vice president of National Public Radio, said that

N.P.R. will remove " The Infinite Mind " from its satellite radio

service

next

week, the earliest possible date. Ms. said that had N.P.R. been

aware

of Dr. Goodwin's financial interests, it would not have aired the

program.

Alspach, a spokeswoman for Glaxo, said, " We continue to believe

that

healthcare professionals are responsible for making disclosures to

their

employers and other entities, in this case National Public Radio and

its

listeners. "

" The Infinite Mind " is a weekly program that has won more than 60

journalism

awards over 10 years and bills itself as " public radio's most honored

and

listened to health and science program. " It has more than one million

listeners in more than 300 radio markets. Mr. Lichtenstein said that

the

last original program aired in October, that reruns have been airing

since

and that " the show is going off the air. "

The program has received major underwriting from the National

Institutes of

Health and the National Science Foundation, both of which have

policies

requiring grantees to disclose and manage conflicts of interest. Mr.

Grassley wrote letters to both agencies asking whether disclosure

rules were

followed for the grants. Spokespeople for both agencies said they were

cooperating with the investigation.

Mr. Grassley is systematically asking some of the nation's leading

researchers and doctors to provide their conflict-of-interest

disclosures,

and Mr. Grassley is comparing those documents with records of actual

payments from drug companies. The records often conflict, sometimes

starkly.

In October, Mr. Grassley revealed that Dr. B. Nemeroff of

Emory

University, one of the nation's most influential psychiatric

researchers,

earned more than $2.8 million in consulting arrangements with drug

makers

from 2000 to 2007, failed to report at least $1.2 million of that

income to

his university and violated federal research rules. As a result, the

National Institutes of Health suspended a $9.3 million research grant

to

Emory and placed restrictions on other grants, and Dr. Nemeroff

relinquished

his chairmanship of Emory's psychiatry department.

In June, the senator revealed that Harvard University's Dr. ph

Biederman, whose work has fueled an explosion in the use of powerful

antipsychotic medicines in children, had earned at least $1.6 million

from

drug makers between 2000 and 2007, failed to report most of this

income to

his university, and may have violated federal and university research

rules.

Mr. Grassley's investigation demonstrates how deeply pharmaceutical

commercial interests reach into academic medicine, and it has shown

that

universities are all but incapable of policing these arrangements. As

a

result of these revelations, almost every major medical school and

medical

society is now reassessing its relationships with drug and device

makers.

" We know the drug companies are throwing huge amounts of money at

medical

researchers, and there's no clear-cut way to know how much and exactly

where, " Mr. Grassley said. " Now it looks like the same thing is

happening

in

journalism. "

Mr. Grassley has proposed legislation that would require drug makers

to

publicly post all payments of $500 or more made to doctors. Eli Lilly

and

Merck have promised to begin posting such payments next year.

Dr. Goodwin has authored an influential textbook on bipolar disorder

and is

an adjunct professor at Washington University. In an extensive

interview, Dr. Goodwin blamed a changing ethical environment for any

misunderstandings between himself and Mr. Lichtenstein about his

consulting

arrangements.

" More than 10 years ago when he and I got involved in this effort, it

didn't

occur to me that my doing what every other expert in the field does

might be

considered a conflict of interest, " Dr. Goodwin said.

He defended the views he expressed in many of his radio programs and

said

that, because he consults for so many drug makers at once, he has no

particular bias.

" These companies compete with each other and cancel each other out, "

he

said. This view is dismissed by industry critics, who say that

experts who

consult widely for drug makers tend to minimize the value of non-drug

or

older drug treatments.

In the fine print of a study he authored in 2003, Dr. Goodwin reported

consulting or speaking for nine drug makers. Mr. Grassley only asked

for

payment information from Glaxo. Dr. Goodwin said that in recent years

Glaxo

paid him more than other companies.

He said that he has never given marketing lectures for antidepressant

medicines like Prozac, so he saw no conflict with a program he hosted

in

March titled " Prozac Nation: Revisited " that he introduced by

saying, " As

you will hear today, there is no credible scientific evidence linking

antidepressants to violence or to suicide. "

That same week, Dr. Goodwin earned around $20,000 from Glaxo, which

for

years suppressed studies showing that its antidepressant, Paxil,

increased

suicidal behaviors.

Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism,

said

that although concerns about media bias are growing, few people

believe that

journalists take money from those they cover. Disclosures like those

surrounding Dr. Goodwin could change that, " so this kind of thing is

very

damaging, " Mr. Rosenstiel said.

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