Just received this letter from David Graham's attorney:
Dear Center for Medicine in the Public Interest:
First, thank you for acknowledging on DrugWonks.com that the opinion piece entitled “The lawlessness of the FDA, Big Pharma immunity, and crimes against humanity†was not, in fact, authored by Dr. David Graham.
Having so acknowledged this fact, we would assume that DrugWonks.com would take the honorable and, we believe, legally mandated step of removing all the postings related to this matter that defame Dr. Graham. Not only did this not happen, DrugWonks.com actually posted an item, “My PS to David Graham†by Robert Goldberg, describing Dr. Graham, among other things as “a sad, sick individual,†after acknowledging that Dr. Graham was not the author of the aforementioned opinion piece.
In our view this Goldberg posting, and the failure to remove the prior postings by Peter Pittts related to this matter, exhibit actual malice toward Dr. Graham and an intentional or reckless disregard for the truth or falsity of these postings. Bluntly, they meet the legal standard of defamation.
Therefore, we must demand that, by 4 pm EST today (Tuesday, November 21, 2006):
(1) DrugWonks.com remove all postings associating Dr. Graham with “The lawlessness of the FDA, Big Pharma immunity, and crimes against humanity†and any negative insinuations about Dr. Graham related to this matter;
(2) Publish, at the top of the home page of DrugWonks.com, a bold-face, unqualified apology to Dr. Graham as follows: “DrugWonks.com, the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, Peter Pitts and Robert Goldberg apologize to Dr. David Graham for posting intemperate and insulting comments about Dr. Graham, wrongly attributing to him the authorship of “The lawlessness of the FDA, Big Pharma immunity, and crimes against humanity.†We regret any inconvenience or harm this has caused Dr. Graham.â€
Well, we want to do the right thing. And we certainly want Dr. Graham and his lawyers to think we're honorable. And, of course, we'd never want to be intemperate and insulting! Furtherest thing from our minds. But, David, you were also clearly inflamed by the article , so we hope you can see where we were coming from.
Please accept our most sincere apologies. And we regret any inconvenience this has caused you.
And, here's an open offer -- please send us your thoughts on the article that you didn't write and we will run it on drugwonks.com. Since it evidently caused you such grief, we'd like to give you the opportunity to set the record straight.
Your lawyer knows how to reach us.
Dear Center for Medicine in the Public Interest:
First, thank you for acknowledging on DrugWonks.com that the opinion piece entitled “The lawlessness of the FDA, Big Pharma immunity, and crimes against humanity†was not, in fact, authored by Dr. David Graham.
Having so acknowledged this fact, we would assume that DrugWonks.com would take the honorable and, we believe, legally mandated step of removing all the postings related to this matter that defame Dr. Graham. Not only did this not happen, DrugWonks.com actually posted an item, “My PS to David Graham†by Robert Goldberg, describing Dr. Graham, among other things as “a sad, sick individual,†after acknowledging that Dr. Graham was not the author of the aforementioned opinion piece.
In our view this Goldberg posting, and the failure to remove the prior postings by Peter Pittts related to this matter, exhibit actual malice toward Dr. Graham and an intentional or reckless disregard for the truth or falsity of these postings. Bluntly, they meet the legal standard of defamation.
Therefore, we must demand that, by 4 pm EST today (Tuesday, November 21, 2006):
(1) DrugWonks.com remove all postings associating Dr. Graham with “The lawlessness of the FDA, Big Pharma immunity, and crimes against humanity†and any negative insinuations about Dr. Graham related to this matter;
(2) Publish, at the top of the home page of DrugWonks.com, a bold-face, unqualified apology to Dr. Graham as follows: “DrugWonks.com, the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, Peter Pitts and Robert Goldberg apologize to Dr. David Graham for posting intemperate and insulting comments about Dr. Graham, wrongly attributing to him the authorship of “The lawlessness of the FDA, Big Pharma immunity, and crimes against humanity.†We regret any inconvenience or harm this has caused Dr. Graham.â€
Well, we want to do the right thing. And we certainly want Dr. Graham and his lawyers to think we're honorable. And, of course, we'd never want to be intemperate and insulting! Furtherest thing from our minds. But, David, you were also clearly inflamed by the article , so we hope you can see where we were coming from.
Please accept our most sincere apologies. And we regret any inconvenience this has caused you.
And, here's an open offer -- please send us your thoughts on the article that you didn't write and we will run it on drugwonks.com. Since it evidently caused you such grief, we'd like to give you the opportunity to set the record straight.
Your lawyer knows how to reach us.
