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A-CHAMP calls NY TimesMercury/Autism Article Intellectually Dishonest, Attacking Parents ofNeurologically Injured Children
Times writers assist suppression ofcritical thimerosal safety information

New York, NY - Advocatesfor Children's Health Affected by Mercury Poisoning (A-CHAMP), thenation's only political action organization working to advance theinterests of children injured by mercury in vaccines, calls the New YorkTimes June 25 article “On Autism's Cause, It's Parents vs.Research,” irresponsible, inaccurate, and inflammatoryjournalism. According to A-CHAMP board member Bobbie Manning, “TheTimes has launched a vicious attack on the autism community in atransparent attempt to influence public perception about thegrowing body of scientific evidence linking mercury-containing vaccinesand neurodevelopmental disorders that now affect one in six Americanchildren.”
 
Despite communicating for over tenmonths with an A-CHAMP spokesperson, receiving hundreds of transcripts,internal communications, and documents showing government and industrycollusion in withholding negative safety information on themercury-based vaccine preservative thimerosal, “The Times haswritten a factually inaccurate and intellectually dishonest article,demonstrating a consistent pattern of support for pharmaceuticalindustry spin in covering the autism/vaccine debate,” statesManning.

Throughout the past ten months, Times reporters Harrisand O'Connor repeatedly surrendered the opportunity to inform the publicof the suppression of safety information about mercury-containingvaccines, despite the evidence provided them. When offereddocuments showing that vaccine manufacturer Merck wasdeceptive in a 1999 press release indicating that mercury was to beimmediately removed from the Hepatitis B vaccine while many dosescontained the neurotoxin well into 2002, Harris suggested the story begiven to another major newspaper. The Merck story was later reported inthe Los Angeles Times. A-CHAMP members are aware that many parents,organizations, doctors and researchers provided information that wasalso ignored. Instead, the NY Times decided to cherry-pick parentcorrespondence and isolated incidents in an unfair sensationalisticeffort to paint parents in a negative light. 
 
"It’s a sad day for journalism when the National Enquirerwrites a more honest, intelligent, and accurate story on this issuethan the New York Times", said A-CHAMP’s Bobbie Manning."I would say it was poorly researched, but that doesn’t gofar enough. This was a vicious hatchet job, designed solely to discreditthe overwhelming evidence that nearly an entire generation of childrenwas overexposed to mercury through vaccines, and that countless childrennow suffer from disabilities directly attributable to thatexposure.”   
 
Instead of reporting ondocuments incriminating to both the pharmaceutical industry and somewithin federal regulatory agencies, the Times chose to highlight ahandful of communications from distraught, heartbroken parents,ignoring the thousands of requests for open and honest examination ofthe issue that have yet to be acted upon by governmentofficials.  A-CHAMP board member Lujene Clark observes“These reporters threw away the evidence handed to them on asilver platter and instead engaged in a smear campaign against parentstrying to help their children recover from mercurypoisoning. Refusing to disclose the smoking gun documents we knowto be in their possession calls into question the motives and agenda ofthe New York Times and its editors.”

For more information,go to www.a-champ.org. To view studies and documents onthe thimerosal/autism link, visit www.nomercury.org/science.htm.