Ducks are nuthin’ but trouble

Over the summer, one Big Alt bully got a proper seeing-off after attempting to silence an Italian blogger who had the temerity to point out that the homeopathetic remedy Oscillococcinum contains nothing more than sugar. Oscillococcinum is supposed to be something in the heart and liver of the Barbary duck which relieves cold and flu symptoms by causing them (you did know that was the philosophy behind homeopathy, right?). Apart from Hahnemann, who invented homeopathy, no-one has ever isolated oscillococcinum, so even the existence of this diluted-out-of-sight ingredient is debatable. In 200 years, nobody has managed to reproduce the experiment? I think the FPI™ order on that one is well past its put-up-or-shut-up-by date.

Anyway, onto the bullying scandal du jour. The inestimable Quackometer, run by the indefatigable @lecanardnoir, ran a piece on the Burzynski clinic two days ago. Burzynski’s marketing droid has reportedly just sent him a spittle-flecked, ill-written rant, seemingly with the intention of scaring the author into removing the post from his blog. There are accusations of defamation, libel, publishing factually incorrect information with reckless disregard and generally being a malicious little twat.

You can read it here The Burzynski Clinic Threatens My Family and the follow-up here Another frothy threat from Burzynski’s alleged representative. Lots of RED ARROWS.

In my opinion, @lecanardnoir is no more of a malicious little twat than the person who sent that email is a lawyer, and this in spite of his use of the phrase my clients’(sic) at regular intervals in the diatribe. Of course, I don’t think @lecanardnoir is a lawyer either, although I do think… Never mind.

What I’m getting at here is that Burzynski and his employees would do well to read up on phrases like “Streisand effect“. Our feathered friend does not stand alone, and his writings seem to stand up to scrutiny much better than the claims made on certain professional websites.

Also standing up and being counted, in addition to those found by Zemanta or mentioned in the comments:

• Guy Chapman’s Blahg: The Burzynski Clinic
• A Physician Shares Her Thoughts About Dr Burzynski’s Work
• Threats from the Burzynski Clinic
• Controversy surrounding Burzynski’s ‘pioneering’ cancer therapy should be reported in newspapers
• Burzynski Clinic Issues Legal Threats Against Bloggers
• Burzynski Clinic Quackery
• Dianthus: The Burzynski Clinic
• A letter to the Observer
• The weird world of US ethics regulation
• A PR Flack for Cancer Quack Attempts to Bully Skeptic Blogger. Ridicule Ensues
• Hope or false hope? (Science Update blog, Cancer Research UK)
• Burzynski Clinic Bullies Bloggers with Legal Threats (Major update)
• On The Burzynski Clinic Issuing Legal Threats Against Bloggers – Support The Streisand Effect
• The cruelty of the Burzynski Clinic must be stopped. Come on, Marc Stephens, make my day
• Is the Burzynski Clinic threatening critics?
• Big business in Texas Zeno’s blog, with some nice data
• Is Marc Stephens Really A Representative Of Burzynski?
• The Jobbing Doctor: Quack, quack….
• Weekly round-up w/e 27/11/11 Birmingham Skeptics
• Bloggers react as leading quackbuster is threatened with libel over exposé of charlatan cancer claims Richard Wilson’s blog
• Jack of Kent: Some libel silliness
• Merchant of Hope.
• 461: I am Spartacus (allegedly) #Burzynski
• Doctor Zorro: Burzynski Clinic
• Burzynski Clinic? Meet the Streisand Effect
• Burzynski clinic’s quackery
• Threats from The Burzynski Clinic
• Search for burzynski on Ratbags (The Millenium Project)
• Chirpified tweets with burzynski hashtag
• EsoWatch (in German)
• Quackonomics: #Burzynski: Silencing Legitimate Criticism is NOT Charity

If I have missed any, you can probably find them in Josephine Jones’s blogpost: Stanislaw, Streisand and Spartacus. If you think you’ve been overlooked, tell us in the comments and remember the good old trackback.

Related articles

• Burzynski: piss-poor cancer therapy at a hefty price (anarchic-teapot.net)
• Homeopathy multinational sues blogger over statements that its mythological curative had “no active ingredient” (boingboing.net)
• The Burzynski Clinic Threatens My Family. (quackometer.net)
• Burzynski Clinic Threatens Blogger (jdc325.wordpress.com)
• Dear Observer …………… (nucella.wordpress.com)
• The False Hope of the Burzynski Clinic (quackometer.net)
• Not Everyone Cares About Cancer (menpatients.wordpress.com)
• A P.R. flack from the Burzynski Clinic threatens a skeptical blogger (scienceblogs.com)
• Evidence? Burzynski don’t need no stinkin’ evidence (cubiksrube.wordpress.com)
• A Reply from The Observer. (nucella.wordpress.com)
• Is the Burzynski Clinic Full of Quacks? (sandwalk.blogspot.com)
• The Burzynski Clinic goes bonkers (blacktriangle.org)
• Representative from Burzynski Clinic sends aggressive legal threats to skeptics who question “antineoplaston” cancer therapy (boingboing.net)
• Burzynski Clinic: the domain of scoundrels and quacks (freethoughtblogs.com)
• “Alternative” cancer clinic threatens to sue high school blogger (blogs.discovermagazine.com)
• The Burzynski Clinic Threatens 17 Year Old Blogger (quackometer.net)
• Meet Stanislaw Burzynski (theawl.com)
• A (very brief) Reply From The Observer. (nucella.wordpress.com)
• The Great Burzynzki Caper (codenix.org)
• Rhys Morgan vs Burzynski (followthelemur.wordpress.com)