Last week, the Canadian TV consumer advocate program "Marketplace" did a piece on homeopathy, and man oh man did it make my skeptic brain do flips of delight. Completely junking any pretense of false balance -- where some ludicrous idea gets as much air time as reality -- they went after homeopathy with both lobes, and really showed it for the flim flam it is. If you're unaware of this practice, homeopathy is the idea that plain old water can cure any ailment. Homeopaths, of course, say there's more to it than that, but their claims have been shown countless times to be, um, not supported by evidence. At all. If you're in Canada you can watch the whole Marketplace episode online, but for the rest of us, it's on YouTube in two parts. Here's the first part: [embed]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFKojcTknbU[/embed]
Part 2 can be found here
. The critical thinking site Skeptic North has more details
, including some minor complaints about the program. I agree with their analysis, but also want to make sure we all see the big picture here: this is one of those very rare times where a TV show actually exposes an antireality alt-med idea for what it is: nonsense. If only there were more shows like this. I have a long, long list of topics they could cover. And remember, according to their own logic: If homeopathy works, then obviously the less you use it, the stronger it gets. So the best way to apply homeopathy is to not use it at all.
Related posts: - British Medical Association: homeopathy is witchcraft - Homeopathy kills - Diluting homeopathy - Homeopathy made simple
