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Epoch Times
21-04-2025
- Health
- Epoch Times
US Prosecutor Sends Letter to Medical Journal, Alleging Bias
A federal prosecutor sent a letter to a medical journal, asking for answers on how it chooses articles, the journal's publishers have confirmed. 'The American College of Chest Physicians, publishers of the journal CHEST, can confirm that we received a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice, and its content was posted online without our knowledge,' a spokeswoman for the college told The Epoch Times in an email on April 21. 'Legal counsel is currently reviewing the DOJ request. Beyond our statement, we have no additional comment at this time.' The missive, dated April 14, came from Edward Martin, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. Martin He asked Dr. Peter Mazzone, editor-in-chief of CHEST, to answer five questions, including whether the journal accepts articles or essays of competing viewpoints. Related Stories 4/9/2025 3/4/2025 'I am also interested to know if publishers, journals, and organizations with which you work are adjusting their method of acceptance of competing viewpoints,' Martin wrote. 'Are there new norms being developed and offered?' He asked for a response by May 2. Martin's office did not respond to a request for comment by publication time. The American College of Chest Physicians The college also said that the journal complies with ethical guidelines and that it respects the journal's editorial independence. It's not clear if similar letters were sent to any other journals. A spokesperson for PLOS told The Epoch Times in an email that it has not received one. Other journals did not return inquiries. Several free speech groups decried the letter, including the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. 'The First Amendment couldn't be clearer: A publication's editorial decisions are none of the government's business. Newspaper, blog, medical journal—it doesn't matter. Back off,' the organization 'When a U.S. Attorney wields the power of his office to target medical journals over their content, he isn't doing his job, let alone upholding his constitutional oath. He's abusing his authority to try to chill protected speech.'
New York Times
18-04-2025
- Health
- New York Times
Trump-Allied Prosecutor Sends Letters to Medical Journals Alleging Bias
A federal prosecutor has sent letters to at least three medical journals accusing them of political bias and asking a series of probing questions suggesting that the journals mislead readers, suppress opposing viewpoints and are inappropriately swayed by their funders. The letters were signed by Edward Martin Jr., a Republican activist serving as interim U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C. He has been criticized for using his office to target opponents of President Trump. Some scientists and doctors said they viewed the letters as a threat from the Trump administration that could have a chilling effect on what journals publish. The health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has said he wants to prosecute medical journals, accusing them of lying to the public and colluding with pharmaceutical companies. One of the letters was sent to the journal Chest, published by the American College of Chest Physicians. The New York Times obtained a copy of the letter. The Times confirmed that at least two other publishers had received nearly identically worded letters, but those publishers would not speak publicly because they feared retribution from the Trump administration. In the letter to Chest, dated Monday, Mr. Martin wrote, 'It has been brought to my attention that more and more journals and publications like CHEST Journal are conceding that they are partisans in various scientific debates.' He demanded that the journal's publishers answer a series of questions by May 2. Do they accept submissions from 'competing viewpoints?' What do they do if the authors they published 'may have misled their readers?' Are they transparent about influence from 'supporters, funders, advertisers and others?' And he specifically singled out the National Institutes of Health, which funds some of the research the journals publish, asking about the agency's role 'in the development of submitted articles.' The prosecutor's inquiry amounts to 'blatant political intimidation of our medical journals,' Dr. Adam Gaffney, a pulmonologist and researcher in Massachusetts whose articles have been published in Chest, wrote on X. It was not clear how many journals had been targeted. Several prominent medical and science publishers said they had not received letters. Others declined requests for comment. News of the letters was earlier reported by MedPage Today, a medical news website. The U.S. attorney's office in Washington also declined to comment. Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the Health and Human Services Department, declined to comment on whether Mr. Kennedy had any involvement. Laura DiMasi, a spokeswoman for the American College of Chest Physicians, confirmed that the organization had received the letter but declined an interview request. Most of what medical journals publish is highly technical, aimed at an audience of specialists. But they and the organizations that publish them have increasingly come under attack. Right-leaning sites like Breitbart have derided them as 'woke medical journals.' The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal group, has been attacking the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which publishes a journal and runs a variety of reproductive health programs. It has received federal funding for an effort to promote maternal health. The alliance recently urged the Trump administration to cut funding and investigate the group, saying it was pushing liberal ideas about diversity and gender. Several journals or their publishers have publicly opposed Mr. Trump. In January, the American Public Health Association, which publishes a journal, was among several groups that sued the Trump administration over a memo freezing federal funding. That policy that has now been rescinded, though the administration has since halted other funds. In March, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists called mass layoffs at H.H.S. an 'attack on public health.' In 2020, The New England Journal of Medicine published an editorial condemning Mr. Trump's response to the pandemic — the first time the journal had taken a position in an election in its 208-year history. The journal Nature endorsed Joseph R. Biden Jr. for president in the 2020 election and spoke out against a second Trump term during the 2024 election. Medical journals are afforded the same First Amendment protections as any other news media outlet. Kent Anderson, a consultant for scientific publishers who has written about conservative attacks on medical journals, said that Mr. Martin's inquiry could have a chilling effect among publishers. 'This is a fishing expedition from a U.S. attorney, and that makes people nervous,' Mr. Anderson said. 'It may make them think twice about an editorial about treating women who have a spontaneous abortion or about transgender teens dealing with a health issue, because it may make them think that somebody is going to knock on the door.' Mr. Kennedy had been nursing grievances about scientific journals for years. Medical and science publishers have long rejected article submissions that purport to show a link between vaccines and autism. (Dozens of studies have failed to establish such a link.) He said in a podcast interview last year that he would seek to prosecute medical journals under the federal anti-corruption statute. 'I'm going to litigate against you under the racketeering laws, under the general tort laws,' he said. 'I'm going to find a way to sue you unless you come up with a plan right now to show how you're going to start publishing real science and stop retracting the real science and publishing the fake pharmaceutical science by these phony industry mercenaries.' As examples, he pointed to two prominent journals, The New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet, and the scientific publishing giant, Elsevier. Other top health officials in the Trump administration have also criticized the big scientific publishers. In a book published last year, Dr. Martin A. Makary, the new commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, accused journal editorial boards of 'gate-keeping' and publishing only information that supports a 'groupthink narrative.' Before becoming director of the N.I.H., Dr. Jay Bhattacharya publicly chastised the editor in chief of a prominent journal, Science, claiming he had 'publicly denigrated scientists' who opposed Covid-era lockdowns. Dr. Bhattacharya was widely denounced by mainstream scientists during the pandemic for proposing that the virus should allowed to spread naturally through the population. Dr. Bhattacharya also co-founded a new journal pitched as an alternative to traditional scientific publishing. It has published contrarian views on Covid.
Washington Post
18-04-2025
- Health
- Washington Post
DOJ questions science journal about bias, triggering free speech concerns
Amid brewing conflict between scientists and the administration of President Donald Trump, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia sent an unusual letter this week to a scientific journal focused on diseases and medicine related to the chest, asking about its editorial policies. 'It has been brought to my attention that more and more journals like CHEST journal are conceding that they are partisans in various scientific debates,' U.S. Attorney Ed Martin wrote. In the letter, Martin said that he has been told some journals 'have a position for which they are advocating due to advertisement (under postal code) or sponsorship (under relevant fraud regulations).' Martin's letter states, 'The public has certain expectations and you have certain responsibilities.' It then poses questions about the journal's view of its role in protecting the public from misinformation, its publication of 'competing viewpoints' and its handling of allegations that authors have misled readers. Martin requested that the journal's editor in chief, Peter Mazzone, respond by May 2. Chest, an Illinois-based monthly journal published by the American College of Chest Physicians with a global circulation of more than 13,000 and more than 156,000 average monthly visits online, confirmed that it received the letter and was having it reviewed by legal counsel. 'Its content was posted online without our knowledge,' the journal said in a brief statement, declining to comment on the requests made by Martin in the letter. Free speech experts raised alarm over the letter. 'It's baffling that the chief federal prosecutor in the District of Columbia could send a letter like this,' said David Snyder, executive director of the nonpartisan, nonprofit First Amendment Coalition. 'I cannot imagine what purpose a letter like this would serve other than to chill freedom of expression.' 'The government has no authority under the First Amendment to regulate the editorial decisions of publications, and the letter suggests that's what Martin intends to do,' Snyder added. A spokesman for The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declined to comment, referring questions to the office of the U.S. attorney. The Justice Department and Martin's office did not respond to requests for comment. The letter comes as the scientific community has raised alarm over Trump administration actions that have halted or disrupted research and science. Since Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20, funding from the National Institutes of Health has dropped by more than $3 billion compared with grants issued during the same period last year, according to a review of publicly available grant data as of late March. Universities that power research and innovation across the country fear losing billions in federal funding amid the administration's actions against elite institutions it views as bastions of 'woke' ideology and anti-Israel sentiment. And the White House budget draft for the Department of Health and Human Services calls for massive cuts to federal programs dealing with health and science. It's unclear whether similar letters have been sent to other journals. Three other major publishers of medical and scientific journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine and Health Affairs, said they had not received similar letters from Martin. Springer Nature, a large publisher of such journals, said there was no one available to comment when asked whether any of its publications had been contacted by Martin. 'When a U.S. Attorney wields the power of his office to target medical journals over their content, he isn't doing his job, let alone upholding his constitutional oath,' JT Morris, supervising senior attorney for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said in a statement. 'These letters are just the latest in a pattern of Ed Martin sticking his nose in places where it doesn't belong, all in an effort to pursue speakers who express views he doesn't like,' he added. Martin has sent letters to critics of Elon Musk and the U.S. Supreme Court admonishing them for comments he viewed as threatening or bullying. Snyder said that he did not see 'any legal compulsion that would require [Chest] to respond.'
