Guest Commentary by
Steven C. Eisen, DC
The Significance of Dr. Tedd Koren’s Courtroom Defeat of Quackbuster
Steven Barrett
A Guest Commentary by:
Steven C. Eisen, DC
Research Coordinator
Foundation for Health Choice
Date: October 20, 2005
On October 13, 2005, notorious self-proclaimed consumer medical
advocate, Stephen Barrett’s defamation lawsuit against Dr. Tedd Koren
was thrown out of court after a grueling three and a half day trial. To
the unknowing observer, this may seem insignificant, but in no
uncertain terms, it was a big victory for the battle of freedom and
rights of all individuals to select the health care of their choice.
The American Medical Association has a long standing history of trying
to monopolize health care in the United States by eliminating
competition. In Wilk v. AMA a Federal court ruled that the AMA and
other individuals and organizations had conspired to contain and
eliminate the practice of chiropractic. The court found that the AMA
and it’s officials instituted a boycott of chiropractors and made it
unethical for a medical doctor to associate with chiropractors.
This boycott disallowing a medical doctor to associate with a
chiropractor was only one part of a seeming comprehensive multi-phase
strategy to eliminate chiropractic. The AMA also, and sometimes subtly,
made attempts to undermine chiropractic educational institutions,
conceal evidence of the usefulness of chiropractic care, undercut
insurance programs for patients of chiropractors, subvert government
inquiries into the efficacy of chiropractic, engage in a massive
disinformation campaign to discredit and destabilize the chiropractic
profession, and engage in numerous other activities to maintain a
monopoly over health care in this country.
It has been reported that the AMA’s Committee on Quackery was the group
purportedly assigned with the task of eliminating chiropractic.
A sub-group of the Committee on Quackery called the Coordinating
Conference on Health Information (CCHI) was also set up to perform
covert activities and operated in total secrecy. According to Joseph
Lisa in his book, “The Assault on Medical Freedom,” in 1974, the CCHI
and its activities were turned over to regional councils against health
fraud. According to Lisa, Stephen Barrett, MD, a psychiatrist in
Allentown Pennsylvania was the leader of one of the affiliate groups
called the Lehigh Valley Council Against Health Fraud. Notice the
intentional transition from the word quackery to describe
non-conventional health care, to the words health fraud. In 1977, the
Allentown group merged with the California Committee Against Health
Fraud to form the National Council Against Health Fraud (NCAHF) which
is still in existence today and is still an advocate against
chiropractic.
Stephen Barrett is now delicensed (he voluntarily gave up his
Pennsylvania medical license, the last of four medical licenses he once
held, in the early 1990’s) and the Vice President of the NCAHF. He also
operates at least 20 websites affiliated with his main site,
Quackwatch.com. The website and its affiliate web sites are seemingly
designed to spread deceitful, untruthful and malicious propaganda about
chiropractic and other non-conventional health practices; similar to
the way the CCHI did under the auspices of the AMA. NCAHF is also
involved in similar activities. In addition, Barrett and his groups
also frequently consult for major media magazines, television, radio,
governmental agencies such as the FBI, FTC and FDA and even the AMA.
One of Barrett’s anti health-choice activities is to frequently file
libel lawsuits against non-conventional health care practitioners,
manufacturers and publishers. He testified in court to filing lawsuits
against at least forty individuals.
One of these lawsuits was filed against well known chiropractor, Dr.
Tedd Koren and his publishing company, Koren Publications in 2003.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that Barrett admits that he is a
consultant to the FTC who unsuccessfully tried to destroy Koren’s
publishing business in the 1990’s using tactics intimately familiar to
the CCHI and NCAHF. The FTC investigation was withdrawn after a full
briefing of the facts to FTC officials by Dr. Koren’s attorneys.
Realizing that the defamation lawsuit was just another of Barrett’s
continued, conspiratorial tactics to destroy chiropractic, Dr. Koren
decided that this time things would be different. In order to
officially link Barrett to the original conspiracy revealed in Wilk v.
AMA, he and Foundation for Health Choice cofounder and attorney Jim
Turner, would have to get Barrett to court instead of settling like so
many of his predecessors did. Jim Turner joined forces with health
freedom trial attorney Carlos F. Negrete of San Juan Capistrano,
California and attorney Christopher Reid of Allentown, Pennsylvania who
all decided to take this precedent setting case to trial. This way,
they could challenge Barrett and put his activities to the test before
a jury of his own peers in his home town. The Barrett v. Koren trial
took place between October 10th and October 13th 2005, and the case was
thrown out by the judge before it went to the jury because Barrett had
not provided sufficient evidence to prove his case. Barrett did,
however, provide plenty of sufficient evidence to show that he was
linked to the continued conspiracy against chiropractic.
The Foundation for Health Choice now has a comprehensive multi-phase
strategy to continue to investigate and uncover activities and
organizations created to undermine chiropractic educational
institutions, conceal evidence of the usefulness of chiropractic care,
undercut insurance programs for patients of chiropractors, subvert
government inquiries into the efficacy of chiropractic, engage in a
massive disinformation campaign to discredit and destabilize the
chiropractic profession, and engage in numerous other activities to
maintain a monopoly over health care in this country.
With your help we can stop the activity of these divisive and
propagandist organizations once and for all. We ask that you consider
supporting this effort to protect your freedom of health choice. Fifty
dollars a month, from 1500 individuals, will fund the strategy to end
the anti-chiropractic campaign of Barrett and his cronies. You can find
out more at www.foundationforhealthchoice.com.
Steven C. Eisen, DC,
Research Coordinator
Foundation for Health Choice
