AJCC April 2000

It’s Don’s Opinion
Integrity, Mail Order Degrees,
and the Job of the Press

Recently, friends found my name on the front page (again) of the Chiropractic Journal (CJ). Usually, Dr. Arlan Fuhr and I congratulate the other person when he is not featured on that “Journal’s” front page. Some in our profession would rather criticize the messenger, telling about foul deeds, than criticize the perpetrator of the foul deed. However, our USA Constitution was set up by the founding fathers to provide freedom of the press to print the truth. It is the job of the press (I am a newspaperman) to follow the truth wherever it shall lead. Of course, the public expects integrity in the press, which in my opinion, is not often found in the CJ. Therefore, I don’t read the CJ any more.

The publisher of the CJ suggested in his recent story that I am in cahoots with a Stephen Barrett, MD. I had never heard of Dr. Barrett before. I am so busy doing chiropractic research and teaching that I don’t pay attention to very many distractions. On the telephone, a Pennsylvania DC told my wife that Dr. Barrett has an Internet site called the “Quackwatch”. So I went to the net, typed in “Quackwatch” and found the site. I followed through a huge amount of topics until I arrived at “CHIROBASE” (3^rd page out of 9 pages of stuff). I “clicked” on “CHIROBASE”, then I scrolled through until I arrived at “Investigative Reports”. Visiting those 12 topics, I found that, in only one of those 12 topics, one of my AJCC articles was used once as a reference. Interestingly, the CJ’s publisher was used as a reference on that same topic. Using the same logic, I guess the CJ’s publisher is also in cahoots with Stephen Barrett, MD!

If you missed our AJCC stories on mail order degrees in 1995-96, let me update you on the “PhDs” given out by Columbia Pacific “University” (CPU) in California. Several DCs had their “PhDs” from CPU. According to a December 1999 San Francisco Chronicle story by Tanya Schevitz, CPU was ordered by a Judge to close. In a recent court case, on December 2, 1999, Marin County Superior Court Judge Lynn Duryee agreed with the State of California’s request for a permanent injunction ordering the 21-year-old “university” to close and to refund its student fees. It was noted that CPU had “graduated” over 7,000 students with mail order degrees. “Records showed that most faculty members who sat on students’ doctoral committees did not have degrees related to the field of investigation.” In court documents, the State of California called the university a “giant scam” and a “diploma mill” which had been preying on California consumers for too long. I think this is an understatement since some DCs were using these CPU “degrees” worldwide. It is my opinion that any DC claiming a PhD should have his/her resume checked for CPU as the granting “university”.

Of course, at the time of our AJCC front page story on DCs with their “PhDs” from CPU, I was made out to be the bad guy by the CJ. However, these future events have exonerated me. In cases where someone starts out to deceive the public, why is he/she surprised when exposed? Why would the press be the “bad” guy and not the deceiver? Which Chiropractic newspapers have integrity?