How Do You Trap A Quackbuster?
Opinion by Consumer Advocate Tim Bolen
July 3rd, 2003
It's easy. You set out cheese.
Our project in Wisconsin is a prime example of how to deal with quackbusters,
correctly, and efficiently. First, understand who, and what, you're dealing
with. Once you know that, you've installed a ring in their nose, which you can
use to lead them to their end. That's what we're doing to Robert S. Baratz MD,
DDS, PhD, the current President of the National Council Against Health Fraud
(NCAHF) in Wisconsin.
Quackbusters are so arrogant, and predictable, by nature, that it's easy to
lead them to their downfall. Individually, they're like one of those
pull-string dolls I bought for my kid when she was three years old. Pull the
string and you get a message like "I'm going to be a big girl some day." And
then it wets it's diaper.
I call the rank-and-file quackbusters "Barrett's Parrots." If failed MD
Stephen Barrett says it, the minions say it. Like the pull-string doll,
there's only one message - and that's ALL there is.
Except for the diaper part.
Hair Removal Salon owner, Robert S. Baratz, is sort of an UPGRADED quackbuster.
Made in a laboratory, Baratz is sort of a combination pull-string doll, and
rodent. Watch videos of him, and you'll see what I mean.
I've helped nail little Bobbie in Florida twice, Texas twice, California twice,
and some other places. He's easy to beat. I'm not surprised he broke into
tears in Wisconsin. He ran twice in Florida, had a jury laugh at him in Texas,
dropped a case in California to avoid being deposed, and more. If he'd had any
idea that a trap was being set in Wisconsin, he'd have stayed home with the
drapes drawn, with his Mom answering the front door..
Quackbusters, individually, or together, aren't much. Their hallmark is the
"fake resume," designed to make quackbusters look like they are in the same
world as those they criticize - when they aren't. Almost all of them do it -
to try to give some credibility to their dubious pronouncements about health
care. In Robert Baratz's case, the resume is a major issue. His resume is
literally, a fantasy world. For details:
http://www.quackpotwatch.org/opinionpieces/quackbusterexpertperjury.htm
But Baratz isn't the only one.
Wallace Sampson, who parades himself on the internet as the editor of "The
Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine" (belch) claims as his descriptive
title "Clinical Professor of Medicine at Stanford University." The fact is,
this rancid old fart probably couldn't even FIND Stanford University, if he had
to... He's NEVER taught an alternative medicine class at Stanford, or for that
matter, ANY class at Stanford. He got his title ("Clinical Professor ...) when
he was required by his former employer, Santa Clara Medical Center, to sign off
on Stanford medical students, working weekends, cleaning bedpans. Sampson
performed that function in the 1980s, and he's been using the title ever since.
I guess, on a quackbuster resume, it sounds better to say "Clinical Professor
of Medicine at Stanford University," then the reality of "bedpan cleaner
signer-off-er." What we should all make note of is the significant fact that
Sampson uses this self-description FIRST and FOREMOST, which would indicate
that, to him, being a "bedpan cleaner signer-off-er." was, and is, the high
point of his professional career.
Sampson is typical of quackbuster leadership.
Anybody can see that the first qualification to be a top quackbuster is to be
hateful, and resentful of other's accomplishments. The second qualification is
to be vicious. The third is to be willing to lie, and misrepresent important
issues. The fourth, and very important, is to LIKE hurting others - the
ability to revel in the knowledge of how much damage they are doing to
Americans.
Knowing the quackbuster's personality traits makes it easy to set a trap.
The Trap...
In the Wisconsin case, Baratz came in thinking the case was going to be a
slam-dunk. For Baratz, and prosecutor Arthur Thexton, knew that Eleazar and
Genia Kadile were suffering the financial and emotional devastation of having
two of their grown children beset by lupus, an incurable disease. They knew
these two kind, caring, people had each given one of their children more life
by donating each of them a kidney. They knew that only one of those children
survived. Baratz figured he'd come in, get a quick $50,000 in fees, take the
Kadile's home, their business, their retirement, their very lives, away from
them, and go on to his next victim.
But it didn't work. Baratz and Thexton didn't count on Eleazar and Genia's
friends coming to their aid.
In Wisconsin, Baratz sunk his teeth into the cheese... and we slammed the trap
shut. And now HE, Robert S. Baratz, MD, DDS. PhD, is on trial for his life.
Never before, in any trial, anywhere, of a leading-edge health practitioner
like Eleazar Kadile MD, has the situation been reversed - where the accuser is
on trial, except here. But it won't be the last time. Look what happened to
quackpots Wallace Sampson, and Stephen Barrett, when they showed up in Los
Angeles Superior Court (NCAHF vs. King Bio), didn't like the Court's decision,
and filed an appeal. The Three Judge Appeals Court labeled them "biased, and
unworthy of credibility."
What we did in Wisconsin was a simple tactic. It can be used on any
quackbuster who comes to testify in any case. Just keep them talking. Keep
them writing down answers. Keep asking about the claims they make on their
resumes. It doesn't take long before they run out of stock answers. Then,
like Baratz did, they'll start to make things up. Keep going. That's when
you've got them. Keep going some more. One bad answer, or two, can be written
off as a mistake. Thirty bad answers, or fifty, or a hundred, become a pattern
of Perjury and Fraud.
As an example, Baratz claims on his resume that he's a "Consultant to the FDA
Office of Criminal Investigation." When it was pointed out that we have two
different letters from the FDA saying they "never heard of him," Baratz
responded that he was "a secret agent," and that "he couldn't tell us what
department, or Supervisor, he worked for" (insert laughter here). Agent
double-O Goofball? Do you suppose he has a shoe phone?
This is what Baratz is facing July 14th, 15th, and 16th. And maybe the 17th,
and 18th. He's going to be cross-examined ONLY on his RESUME and his
CREDIBILITY, on those days. If he survives that, and I doubt that he will,
then he'll face a whole week of cross-examination on his "expert witness"
statements. His "expert witness" statements were so ludicrous, that top MDs
and Scientists reviewing his documents, and the statements within those
documents, at first thought "this guy knows nothing about science, or
medicine." But then reality struck. Baratz has three doctorates. He has to
know. He was simply lying. Lying under oath is called Perjury. Perjury is a
Misdemeanor. In volume, it's a Felony.
This is a landmark case...
Have you ever heard of a case where the Judge assigns THREE DAYS of
cross-examination on the "expert witness's" resume and credibility, before?
When I say that Baratz is on trial for his life, I mean exactly that.
Tim Bolen - Consumer Advocate