John of God on CNN with Dr Gupta

[fly44d]

I couldn't believe what I was seeing when CNN's Dr Gupta interviews  the two people Oprah sent to "investigate"  John of God in Brazil.  They were sad excuses for investigators, this guy has been around for years and they went to Brazil with nothing?  They didn't even Google him prior to leaving?  No sign of it from this interview.  Gupta sounded skeptical but not enough and didn't he have anyone investigate and give him some more pointed questions to ask?  Had he never looked into him and found Randi's thoughts on the subject?  It seemed to me he wanted to but it didn't fit the credulous theme of the show.  Big mystery to report!  Hope for the sick!  Fuck me.
John Of God "THE MIRACLE MAN"

[DeanMorrison]

Just.. wow. Sad.

[snakeman]

"maybe 100 years from now energy healing will be one of the forefronts of medicine...."   

That's just such a sad piece in so many ways.

[JoelWhy]

This is f*ing sickening.  This isn't the first time I've seen Dr. Gupta demonstrate his lack of critical thinking (go find his stories on how near-death-experiences can't be explained by science).  But, this is a new low.  This type of reporting leads to people dying -- period.

[Halleyscomet]

Well, it's nice to know Dr Gupta is an ignorant retard incapable of even basic investigation int obvious, transparent quackery and con jobs. I always appreciate it when worthless wastes of skin reveal themselves. I can now write off Dr Gupta as "that fucktard who though 'John of God' might be real."

[pulsetsar]

Another example of science based medicine for some reason pandering to these alterantive modalities without any evidence behind them. Dr. Gupta should know better - he was trained as a Neurosurgeon!

[DeanMorrison]

This is the kind of thing that calls for skeptics to flood CNN with a massive snail mail and email campaign.

[jaypee]

Well, it's nice to know Dr Gupta is an ignorant retard incapable of even basic investigation int obvious, transparent quackery and con jobs. I always appreciate it when worthless wastes of skin reveal themselves. I can now write off Dr Gupta as "that fucktard who though 'John of God' might be real."

Remember how close Dr. Gupta was to being Surgeon General? Remember that?

Bullet = Dodged.

[Halleyscomet]

This is the kind of thing that calls for skeptics to flood CNN with a massive snail mail and email campaign.

I wrote CNN about this:

http://blog.matthewmiller.net/2010/12/writing-poison-pen-letter-to-cnn.html

You can too:

http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5.html?10

I also added this controversy to his Wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanjay_Gupta#Criticism_of_reporting

Update:

And John of God's Wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo%C3%A3o_de_Deus_%28medium%29#CNN_Coverage

[jaypee]

My submission:

Dr. Gupta's segment on "John of God" was RIDICULOUS. How can a major news network (or the ghost of a major news network, as CNN now surely is) live with itself if it lets one of its premier personalities deliver such new-age religious mumbo-jumbo? The con that quacks like "John of God" run is deadly. It doesn't matter of John of God allegedly tells his victims to continue seeing their doctors, in many cases they probably don't because they're so taken in by his nonsense that they think they're cured. Pyschic surgery is a fraud. Don't you guys have Google? Can't you do the barest minimum of background research into your topics before credulously reporting whatever some quack and some crank from Oprah magazine report? Have you no integrity left?

[JoelWhy]

This is the kind of thing that calls for skeptics to flood CNN with a massive snail mail and email campaign.

Done!

I was appalled to see Dr. Gupta's uncritical report on "John of God". 
John is a con man using pseudoscience and well-known carny tricks to dupe sick people into handing over their cash.  (No, John doesn't charge for his "faith healing", but he DOES charge for the herbs he then 'prescribes' to those very same patients!)

Gupta's guests are not qualified to seriously examine the work (i.e. scam) being done by John.  You should have had an experienced magician examine the evidence -- someone who is trained to ferret out sleight-of-hand and related tricks.

Make no mistake about it -- Gupta's reporting now has a body-count associated with it.  Seriously ill people will forgo proven treatments to seek out a magical cure doled out by a professional scam artist.  Shame on you, Dr. Gupta!

[superdave]

Well, it's nice to know Dr Gupta is an ignorant retard incapable of even basic investigation int obvious, transparent quackery and con jobs. I always appreciate it when worthless wastes of skin reveal themselves. I can now write off Dr Gupta as "that fucktard who though 'John of God' might be real."

Remember how close Dr. Gupta was to being Surgeon General? Remember that?

Bullet = Dodged.

I do wonder if Gupta's lack os skepticism is totally under his control, being a TV doctor and all.

[MountainManPan]

Dr. Gupta is hot, though.

[Halleyscomet]

Well, it's nice to know Dr Gupta is an ignorant retard incapable of even basic investigation int obvious, transparent quackery and con jobs. I always appreciate it when worthless wastes of skin reveal themselves. I can now write off Dr Gupta as "that fucktard who though 'John of God' might be real."

Remember how close Dr. Gupta was to being Surgeon General? Remember that?

Bullet = Dodged.

I do wonder if Gupta's lack os skepticism is totally under his control, being a TV doctor and all.

Whatever control he lacks he could regain by leaving television if he chose to do so. Whatever his motivation, he has the option to NOT whore himself out to pimp a witch doctor and yet he chose to do so. I have no sympathy for the man.

[Anders]

Another example of science based medicine for some reason pandering to these alterantive modalities without any evidence behind them. Dr. Gupta should know better - he was trained as a Neurosurgeon!

So's Michael Egnore.