Paul D. Thacker Profile picture
Journalist; Former Investigator U.S. Senate; Former Safra Ethics Center, Harvard. https://t.co/aD6NkYzjqM

Apr 3, 12 tweets

1) Allison Neitzel served as physician-expert on misinformation stories at NBC, Mother Jones, MedPage Today, & others, but was forced to apologise last week for spreading misinformation and defaming physicians.

Also, she's not a physician! pauldthacker.com/blog/#/

2) In one incident, @AliNeitzelMD attacked physician @TracyBethHoeg as "Hoeg hag."

HOEG: “The fact [Neitzel] has not nearly completed her training but has appointed herself as an expert physician in pointing out misinformation strikes me as both odd and ironic.”

3) Here's a posting of Allison Neitzel's "Sorry if you were hurt" apology, where she explained spreading misinformation about multiple physicians.

4) Neitzel claims to be a physician or is cited as a physician. But she doesn't meet the legal requirements for being a physician in Wisconsin.

Looked her up in the national registry of physicians and guess what? "Error: no matching records found."

5) But the "disinformation" genre of journalism is such a clown show that this didn't stop Neitzel from getting multiple media hits.

Disinformation reporters never do any due diligence; they just need a useful idiot "expert" to bash people.

6) @MotherJones Kiera Butler featured Allison Neitzel in a story attacking physicians opposed to a CA bill that would censor them, implying they were "far right" and promoting Nazi propaganda.

The bill was later repealed.

7) NBC's @BrandyZadrozny, who reports on "extremism" also platformed Neitzel. "Extremism" is code in the disinformation world for “conservative” as people like Zadrozny never seem to find extremism among liberals.

Here's Zadrozny.

8) The absurdity is Zadrozny quoted Neitzel as expert on misinformation and physician harssment, when Neitzel while Neitzel spent years fomenting misinformation and physician harassment.

I emailed Zadrozny if she would run a correction, but Zadrozny doesn't correct errors.

9) @medpagetoday ran Allison Neitzel in three stories.

“Can you explain why MedPage Today ran so many stories featuring Allison Neitzel who falsely claimed to be a physician and has been forced to post an apology for defaming physicians?”I emailed @jeremyfaust

10) The site @whowhatwhy has an author page for "physician-researcher" Allison Neitzel. (Will they award her a PhD?)

@RealRussBaker did not respond for comment to explain why. @markhertsgaard

11) @TracyBethHoeg "‘Misinformation’ reporters often seem less qualified in terms of understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the scientific studies and domains than the people/scientists they are accusing of spreading ‘misinformation.’”

12) More at @DisInfoChron

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