Despite being utterly, and embarrassingly, full of crap, Kevin Trudeau’s books are still popular. I’ve got patrons asking for them every week and I have to put them on hold because they’re usually checked out. Never mind that the man’s a fraud and a con-artist spreading false information about everything from cures to cancer to ways out of debt, people want to read his stuff.
So while I applaud the recent actions of a federal judge who ordered Trudeau to pay US$37 million for violating a 2004 order regarding false claims in his weight loss “cures” book, I doubt it’ll have an effect on those wanting to read it. However, we can at least take solace in the fact that he’s also been barred from publishing anything or creating infomercials for the next three years.
More from, where else?, the Federal Trade Commission.
That idiot is one of the reasons I am not a public librarian
I sent some of his books back to B&T as they were on some automatic ship plan. I just didn’t want his crap in the library as I feel he is a charlatan, snake oil salesman and his nonsense was actually harming people as they ignored the advice of competent physicians in favor of his nonsense.
I finally had to order the books because we had so many requests for his stupid Cures book. I always tried to offer other books in addition to his when patrons asked about it, seldom did anyone take me up on the offer.
As an RN, and just just as a human, it pained me to see old people (primarily) grasping for a lifeline and being thrown a brick by this man who I consider a criminal. Even if it weren’t the crappy pay and other reasons I left public librarianship, having no choice but to provide this type of crap without comment to patrons (patients?) made me sick. As a nurse I am required to provide professional care and patient teaching that would be more likely to steer them to effective medical care or at least encourage them to discuss their alternative therapies with a traditional physician.
I can’t in good conscience not tell people that garlic and vinegar will do nothing to cure their uterine cancer. I can’t be an unbiased librarian when it comes to an immediate and direct threat to a patrons life.
I am happy I don’t have to deal with this dilemma anyomre, and I’d like to beat the crap out of Kevin Trudeau and all of the other charlatans of his ilk.
Well now…
Jeez, mdoneil, don’t candy coat it. Tell us how you really feel!
Some books contain the machinery required to create and sustain universes. Tycho (Jerry Holkins) @ Penny Arcade
Never
I never candy coat anything. Life is not a popularity contest (thankfully) and I don’t mind telling people how I feel.
There is plenty of crap to
There is plenty of crap to go around, and a good bit of it is not in public libraries.
Misplaced idealism
I can’t in good conscience not tell people that garlic and vinegar will do nothing to cure their uterine cancer. I can’t be an unbiased librarian when it comes to an immediate and direct threat to a patrons life.
My bad choices in the treatment of my medical conditions do not constitute an immediate and direct threat. My putting a gun to my head does. The upshot if it is, mdoneil, that how I manage my medical tmt is not your choice, and none of your business. You don’t have to agree with my choices, you don’t have to like them, the only thing you have to do is to not intefere with them. It’s not your life, it’s none of your business. And you’re not going to get through to people who are acting out of desperation anyway.
It sucks, but there you go.
There is nothing that cannot be found offensive by someone, somewhere.
As long as:
1) public tax
As long as:
1) public tax money is not spent to save your life when the quack cure you insist on using fails,
2) your family will not become destitute and become public charges when you die or your health fails due to relying on medical quackery,
3) your loved ones will not suffer psychological damage resulting from your bad medical choices,
then your choice of medical care is indeed strictly your decision.
When it’s something as
When it’s something as serious as a won lawsuit against someone for spreading lies I do wonder if it would be an idea to put a note to this effect in the books mentioned.
Same with A Million Little Pieces and Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years.
People will still want to read these books (true or not, they obviously made for good reading) and they will be bought so surely we have a responsibility to inform patrons? I can certainly see blame being attached to libraries for not warning people (especially when it is something medical) so what to do?
Of course you can then have the problem of racist material etc but when it’s not illegal or proved to be false leave it alone?
Agreed…
When the FDA finds some drugs are a risk to certain populations (antidepressants and adolescents for instance) a disclaimer is put on the bottle and in the prescription paperwork. The judge should have ordered Trudeau to put a warning label in his books. I also notice a lot of disclaimers in weight loss commercials and infomercials stating “results atypical.” I don’t recall seeing this on his, but it’s been a while since I tried to suffer through one of his commercials.
Fraud is Fraud
“There’s a sucker is born every minute.” -PT Barnum
The same type of desperate people who will buy, read and believe Trudeau’s book are the same type of people who bought and believed Schiff’s “The great income tax hoax : why you can immediately stop paying this illegally enforced tax.” A whole host of people bought that book and believed it and now are either in jail or owe the IRS a lot of money. This book is owned by a whole bunch of libraries as well.
My bad choices in the treatment of my medical conditions do not constitute an immediate and direct threat.
Unless you are buying something like those stupid Kinoki “detox” foot pads, then yes your bad choices are for you and your stupidity. But if you have dire health problems, then your bad choices are a threat to more than just yourself and your wallet. If you choose to ignore normal medical advice and follow a quack, that decision impacts far more than just you and your family. You impact our healthcare costs, especially if we go to socialized medicine (callous but true). You perpetuate a mythical “treatment” which puts future people in danger who could be medically saved. Every one of these fraudulent treatments these charlatans throw out there delays real research and acceptence of true complimentary and alternative medicines which could help save lives.