A funny thing happened to Meryl over the last couple of years. She's gone from a darling of the media, regularly invited to give the "other side" in the name of "balance"... all the way down to outcast and pariah.
The majority of journalists have woken up to the fact that there is no scientific debate in terms of vaccination: the facts are settled in terms of scientific consensus. A handful of nutty & noisy science-deniers like Meryl have no bearing on the reality, however much they wish it was different.
What's more a number of Meryl's callous actions, starting with her harrassment of the grieving parents of Dana McCaffrey, have outraged ever-growing segments of the population.
Now Meryl stands revealed to all as she really is: lying science-denier, callous persecutor of grieving parents, promoter of practices which cause the spread of disease and resulting deaths, person who profits from paranoia and serial lawbreaker.
All of which is why today, her typical treatment by the media is like this:
After Meryl's recent outing at the Queensland Woo Festival, where she lied about all the usual vaccination topics including Shaken Baby Syndrome, decent people everywhere are again appalled at her bad behaviour and also disappointed that credulous, poorly-researched journalists continue to give her media coverage.
It's not many journalists these days, of course. Most of the industry have seen enough of her and learned their lesson. But still, every now and then she slips through and gets a story - which should never happen at this late stage.
To address the problem, the enviously talented Shelley Stocken produced this perfect and funny quick-reference guide to Meryl for the media. Enjoy and then check out her blog; there's a lot more good stuff where this came from!
Disease, False Balance and Meryl Dorey - a Guide for Media
Because her opinion isn't news.
For the benefit of media who think it's worth consulting anti-vaccine lobbyists for "their side" when writing about the serious issue of immunisation, I'd like to suggest a few points, if I may:
Evidence has shown that creating false balance by providing anti-vaccine speakers (who have opinions based on opinions) a platform alongside medical experts (who have opinions based on evidence), makes people give more credence to the anti-vaccine view than if it was presented in isolation.
As I see it, if you include an anti-vaccine lobbyist alongside an expert in a story about vaccination, you are hindering the success of public health initiatives and contributing to the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases.
Who says Meryl Dorey’s incorrect? My state’s HCCC. Who says Meryl’s claims are bulldust? People at the ABC. Who says Meryl is misleading? Why, the Office
of Fair Trading. So don’t put her in your story, ‘less your story needs
degrading.
Right now in Australia we're battling outbreaks of measles and whooping cough.
Evidence has shown that creating false balance by providing anti-vaccine speakers (who have opinions based on opinions) a platform alongside medical experts (who have opinions based on evidence), makes people give more credence to the anti-vaccine view than if it was presented in isolation.
As I see it, if you include an anti-vaccine lobbyist alongside an expert in a story about vaccination, you are hindering the success of public health initiatives and contributing to the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases.
Yes, brave Sir Meryl turned about, And gallantly she chickened out. Bravely taking to her feet, She beat a very brave retreat. Bravest of the braaaave, Sir Meryl!
[With apologies to Monty Python...]
Meryl is up to her cowardly tricks once again, but even by her standards this stunt is a clanger!
Back in 2012, Meryl applied for Apprehended Violence Orders (AVOs) against 3 people who said mean things about her online.
Her applications were breathtaking in their implausibility. While Meryl lives in the infectious diseasenutty fruitcake hippy capital of Australia, Bangalow, the 3 individuals supposedly causing Meryl to fear for her life were hundreds of kilometres away.
Dan Buzzard, for example, lives in Perth - hardly a location from which to threaten violence against a nutty conspiracy theorist near Australia's eastern most point.
And the subject of Meryl's most recent rantings, Peter Bowditch, lives over 750 kms away in the Blue Mountains, behind Sydney.
Meryl also pencilled on to the end of her AVO applications a request that her 3 supposed nemeses be prohibited from writing about her online, causing everyone but her most gullible supporters to wonder if perhaps that was the whole reason for the AVO applications.
The opportunity to use the courts to silence 3 of her critics was too tempting for Meryl to be concerned with small details like her total lack of supporting evidence. No, that's hardly an obstacle for someone with Meryl's extreme narcissism, so she pressed on.
Meryl dragged the case out for as long as she could, with no less than 9 reschedules and failures to appear before the courts patience finally ran out and the case was heard. Oops, Meryl's application was thrown out on its absurd and unsubstantiated ear!
Peter was even awarded costs, a rare occurrence in AVO applications and a confirmation that the court viewed Meryl's application as a frivolity.
Fast-forward a few months, and Meryl is seeking someone to debate her face-to-face at an upcoming woo festival. So who does she call on, but that "scary" and "threatening" object of her legal timewasting Peter Bowditch!
In the process, she set up this ridiculous scenario for the benefit of her gullible cult members:
So Meryl, remind us again why you're so physically afraid of Peter Bowditch that you fear to be in the same room as him again?
Hmm, it actually looks like you're afraid of him for a totally different reason. Perhaps it's actually because he calls you out for your absurd claims and repeatedly highlights the idiocy of your comments about vaccines...
