Media code for homeopaths

[Tanya Marquette]

I was just agreeing with Fran th

[Tanya Marquette]

I was just agreeing with Fran that it can be a goal. In the US that is a problem.
However, hostility being noted, there are health teachers who teach all kinds of things.
In NYC my granddaughter had a teacher in 6 or 7th grade who taught about organic
foods and herbal healing. Made my gd feel special since she had me who had been
trying to teach her some things.
I say this because it is possible to make individual teacher contacts and get
invited into class to talk about a given subject. And some teachers will insert info
into their teaching. A bit sub-rosa and not an institutionalized approach, but one way
to begin to spread info at early ages.
tanya

[Theresa Partington]

Quite apart from the stance we take and what is said there is also the issue of handling the media per se, especially TV and radio. These people are professionals, and i include the uk 'skeptics' as being fundamentally media people, they know how to wind people up and make them lose their cool, one way or another, all in the interests of a soundbite. Handling the media in order to get their own message across effectively is something people are trained to do these days and perhaps it is not a bad idea to have our own confident media people representing us. Some homeopaths will be good at this and others won't.
Theresa
--- In minutus@yahoogroups.com, "tamarque@..." wrote:

[Soroush Ebrahimi]

One of the things that is observed when a politician is interviewed is that if they are asked a question - and particularly if they do not like the question - is to respond by making a point that they wish to get across or provide the answer to a question of their choice. If they are per chance get pulled up, they answer, "I will get to that point."
But importantly they have not got angry or nervous and made a statement about which they are very confident.
Soroush
From: minutus@yahoogroups.com [mailto:minutus@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Theresa
Sent: 04 February 2011 10:10
To: minutus@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Minutus] Re: Media code for homeopaths
Quite apart from the stance we take and what is said there is also the issue of handling the media per se, especially TV and radio. These people are professionals, and i include the uk 'skeptics' as being fundamentally media people, they know how to wind people up and make them lose their cool, one way or another, all in the interests of a soundbite. Handling the media in order to get their own message across effectively is something people are trained to do these days and perhaps it is not a bad idea to have our own confident media people representing us. Some homeopaths will be good at this and others won't.
Theresa

--- In minutus@yahoogroups.com , "tamarque@..." wrote:

[Tanya Marquette]

This is a big point/issue. There are people who are looking at this issue.
I see the same problems in other groups that I work with. My position is that
we need to look at the successful strategies of the opposition and adopt them.
I don't mean that we lie and deny. But that we look at how the sound bites are
created. It is how they BRAND themselves.
About a year ago this effort resulted in creating the phrase "Homeopathy Heals."
Bumper stickers were made up--minutus was sent this information at the time.
There is now a website with that name. We should all be using it. Title our
blogs with it; sign our posts with it; begin our letters with it; etc, etc.
Another strategy for communicating is to have our talking points clear and only
talk about them no matter what we are asked. Watch the politicians and you will
see this all the time. Write a letter to your congressperson and you get the canned
thank you, concerned citizen, blah, blah, blah message back--even when you write
to them personally (not a petition). The news does this, too, when they have a
point to push. Certain phrases and images are repeated over and over again
regardless of the facts or questions, or changes in conditions. Watching the
events in Egypt in the MSM is a current case in point.
And, what is most difficult for people, is to stay egoless when talking publicly.
As they used to say "Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on, hold on!"
tanya

[Rochelle Marsden]

It is also for our own protection as we may say something inadvertently that gets twisted and naturally that is the bit that the media pick up on. e.g. pity help any homeopath who dare say that they give remedies for avoiding malaria or that they treat patients with cancer. The later will be regurgitated as treating cancer which is forbidden in UK. These are the sort of thing the media are looking for homeopaths to say so that they can be discredited. The Society of Homeopaths have given us disclaimers to put on our websites e.g The following testimonials are the personal opinions of patients I have treated and do not represent evidence.
Unfortunately the media/skeptics in UK are after us and there are more demonstrations against us planned for this month,
Rochelle
Registered Homeopath with The Society of Homeopaths
EFT (Advanced) Practitioner
www.southporthomeopathy.co.uk

[Sue Boyle]

Hi Everyone,

The US and Canada are going on the offensive with the denialists and not waiting until the situation becomes worse. The NCH has a media person and if anyone here or in Canada is contacted for an interview, call them for advice. After the CBC broadcast in January, NUPATH set up a site called Extraordinarymedicine.com which will include testimonials. Work with The Homeopathic Action Trust in the UK. Just don't talk to a reporter ! Even keeping to points and being an experienced practitioner didn't help last July when the AP sent someone to ask about homeopathy in Massachusetts. She has had a hard time with the fallout from the article which labeled us as witches and Druids. BTW the AP (Associated Press) wouldn't know the truth if it bite them ! despite their website assertions.

For those of us in the US NCH is having one day out of the entire conference with lectures on dealing with Congress (oh joy !), be media savvy and research. The idea is to strengthen homeopathy's position as an emerging profession in No America. We can't beat Big Pharma at their own game, we can only be out there showing what we can do and who we are. Someone at the last HAA meeting mentioned that despite the really awful article in Consumer Reports in 1992, homeopathy has continued to grow and nothing the drug companies are doing seems to stop that growth.

Sue

[Tanya Marquette]

Yea.....for getting it together. We need strong organizations that can be the center of the wheel
for organizing and activism. We need to be able to get the word out quickly and provide insider
information.
I cannot attend the NCH conference in Va but it should be terrific. Hope people bring back the
ideas and put them out here for all of us to share.
tanya

[Fran Sheffield]

I also think it is important not to be too cautious as this silences homeopaths and those who have done well with homeopathy - the intimidation and ridicule has worked.

Many associations are often not helpful in this area. They repeatedly cave in to the intimidation and apply pressure on their members to do likewise.

Does homeopathy prevent malaria? Does homeopathy treat cancer? Of course it does - not 100% of the time but then, neither does anything else. So why should we be expected to go quiet about this?

The fact that homeopathy does help in these areas and the public should be informed about it with a statement such as, "for the sake of those affected, and those who will be affected, further research (or funding of research) in this area is vital. Anything less is reprehensible." Most people would see this as quite reasonable, not quackery getting out of hand. It would make a lot of average folk start asking questions.

Yep - the skeptics would howl and ridicule and trash but a lot of average people are becoming very sick of them and it would draw far more attention to what homeopathy can do than even they would like. Things would probably swing the other way - rather than homeopathy being pilloried in the media there would probably be a black-out on all stories or references to it in order to try and cut off its oxygen.

Fran.

[Fran Sheffield]

Exactly. Going quiet is the worst thing to be done. Much better for there to be a hell of a fuss. People aren't stupid - well, not all of them anyway.

Fran.