My response to Science last night
The comment 'snarky blog' has to be one of the biggest understatements in journalistic history. Jon Cohen - in the interests of balance, really should have addressed the inflammatory comments Abbie Smith has repeatedly made against Judy Mikovits for a long time now. Smith has repeatedly attempted to smear Mikovits good name and assault her integrity, though anonymous followers have also taken part in this. It has been shocking to watch. Comments from Abbie Smith (ERV) alone (without the other chiming in) include:
"It could TOTALLY be what Judy says it is NOW, she just 'forgot to label it' and 'forgot to talk about 5-AZA' in the Science paper! That is an excuse I had not expected. Judy should keep it in the bag for the next time one of these 'accidents' pops up. LOL!!...But Im sure Judy (or that damn post doc) just accidentally scanned the wrong image that just happened to have the pattern they 'saw' with their epigenetics assays"
"ATTENTION JUDY MIKOVITS AND WHITTEMORE PETERSON INSTITUTE: Game over. DONT F*** WITH SCIENTISTS. DONT F***K WITH SCIENTISTS." (please note the asterisks NOT used on the blog).
"I will not let Average Joes/Janes think this woman is scientifically trustworthy." (referring to Mikovits)
"Why do I get the feeling that this evidence does not exist, and Mikovits is just a gigantic fucking c**t?" (please note asterisks NOT used on the blog)
"So, now she is a deceitful, conniving, gigantic fucking c***" (please note asterisks NOT used on the blog)
"So once again, Mikovits is being manipulative, suggesting another groups scientific statements are actually personal attacks, 'attacking us', while providing no scientific response. Like a Creationist"
"Aaaaand now weve graduated from 'deceitful, conniving, gigantic fucking c***' to just good old fashioned dangerous. We are now well into Kook Kountry here"
"Judy Mikovits? You suck. Grow the f*** up and learn to be a scientist." (please note asterisks NOT used on the blog)
These are just a few examples. There are plenty more. I do not personally care about the rude words (I've only asterisked them in order to prevent ME being prevented from posting here, ironically!) - but it's the fact they are directly used to attack a scientist, Judy Mikovits, already accused of having fire shooting out of her eyes and being a Joan of Arc (i.e religious fanatic and heretic) in Science itself last week! These attacks on a scientist by a 'snarky blog' writer are part of this story, as are many other things conveniently ignored in the press about this whole issue. Looking at this level of attack - one sees how there has been a concerted smear campaign going on. Now THIS should be investigated.