Invitation to our breakfast table

The ACSH staff would like to offer a seat at the breakfast table to Peggy Northrop, editor in chief of Reader s Digest, for her refreshing interview with Dr. Manny Alvarez on yesterday s edition of Fox s Health Talk. She conducted herself with remarkable aplomb and openly addressed some recent instances of celebrities championing bad science, ranging from Oprah s misguided presentation of crackpot "bio-identical" promoter Suzanne Somers' bizarre theories of hormone replacement therapy to Jenny McCarthy s dangerously misleading indictment of traditional childhood vaccinations as a cause of autism. We were also relieved to hear her echo our long-held belief that the media including the book publishing industry is to be reproached for providing a platform for uninformed and unchallenged celebrity opinions. For further reference: ACSH s treatment of Celebrities vs. Science, which will soon be updated, with more celebrity misstatements on science.