Michael Fumento, AIDS, and ACSH

In an earlier post I described how ACSH published an AIDS booklet that contained data that Beth Whelan knew to be false. 

Michael Fumento had been doing the thankless job of debunking lies and exaggerations about the risk to heterosexuals of contracting AIDS, most importantly in his invaluable and sensational book, The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS. Today I came across a 1990 C-Span interview about the book, and about two-thirds of the way through it he refers to the ACSH booklet and a communication from Whelan proving that she knew that what ACSH would subsequently publish was false. That is, if she ever read the booklet, which is not a given. Beth was not what one would call an inveterate reader. In my six months I never saw her reading any book and she had precious little to do with editing ACSH materials. I was too busy to give it much thought, but I did occasionally wonder if she did any work. She seemed to bide her time until she could do a media appearance. 

Fumento's authorship of his AIDS book more effectively and courageously debunked bad science than everything ACSH has done before or since, and ACSH participated, however ineffectually, in undermining Fumento's accomplishment. 

I refer back to the same post in which I point out that Whelan's endorsement appeared on what is arguably the worst book ever written about AIDS, The AIDS Cover-Up?: The Real and Alarming Facts about AIDS, written by Lutheran minister Gene Antonio. So much for ACSH's devotion to "sound science." (Keep in mind that Whelan was ACSH. Every other employee did her bidding.)

Here's the interview, well worth listening to in its entirety. Brian Lamb is the best interviewer who has ever graced American TV. 

https://www.c-span.org/program/book-tv/the-myth-of-heterosexual-aids/139823