2UE, Steve Liebmann and that stranger, the truth
Yesterday, Steve Liebmann from Radio Station 2UE, interviewed Ken McLeod from Stop the Australian Vaccination Network (SAVN), the organisation that originally filed a complaint against the AVN with the HCCC and is now lobbying the government to close the Australian Vaccination Network down.
This interview which you can hear by clicking here (some of our committee members were so sickened by the hate speech contained in this interview, they were unable to listen to it all the way through) builds on the defamation presented in yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald Article and builds up to a fine lather - without allowing either myself or anyone else from the AVN an opportunity to defend ourselves or to tell the truth about the situations discussed.
Today, I contacted Steve Liebmann's assistant, Kate, and asked for the right of reply. Her answer was that I did not have the right of reply because I was on another 2UE program yesterday afternoon and even though we didn't cover all the issues Steve Liebmann had spent so long berating me about, they had already given me an opportunity to air the AVN's point of view.
I was not happy with that and told Kate that I wasn't and she then offered to allow me an opportunity to present a statement on air which would be read out by Steve Liebmann. I asked for her assurance that this statement would be read verbatim and she assured me it would. Below is a copy of the email I sent to Kate and below that is the extremely edited clip from Steve Liebmann's show.
Dear Kate and Steve,
Below is my statement which I would appreciate you reading on air. Kate has promised that this will be read as is and not edited in any way so I thank you for that.
Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns. My details are in my signature.
Kind regards, Meryl Dorey
Reply – Steve Liebman interview 27/7/2010
The Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) is composed of a group of parents and health professionals who believe that information on all medical issues in general and vaccination in particular must always be freely and openly available and that no medical procedure should ever be compulsory.
Many of our members, including our spokesperson, Meryl Dorey, have children who were either injured or killed by vaccines.
We maintain an adverse reactions database with more than 1,200 reports of serious injury or death following vaccination. All of these reactions have been reported by us to ADRAC (The Adverse Drug Reactions Advisory Committee) after doctors or nurses refused to file the reports.
We urge the government to conduct independent, scientific tests of vaccines – tests which are currently only done by the drug companies with no independent oversight.
And we urge all parents to investigate both sides of this issue and ask as many questions as they can about both the safety and effectiveness of vaccines before making a decision.
We feel that this is a responsible position to take and cannot understand the attitude projected towards those families in Australia who ask valid questions about a medical procedure which has a downside as well as an upside.
The AVN and I have been accused of harassing the grieving parents of Dana McCaffery, a 4-week old girl who died from whooping cough.
Neither I nor anyone on our Management Committee has ever contacted this family by either telephone, email, letter or in any other way. I placed a statement on the public Facebook page of the McCafferys when certain statements were being made regarding information in an interview I had done with ABC radio. These statements were incorrect and I provided the proof of that.
At that time, Toni McCaffery stated that, "Meryl has responded, as she is very entitled to. I just ask that everyone when stating their opinions is respectful and is factual."
This is the only time I have ever contacted any of the McCafferys and I do not believe this constitutes harassment. I have requested via the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) and the media, that proof of this harassment be provided and have stated many times that if any of the AVN’s 2,500 members have harassed a grieving family, they will be ejected from the organisation. No proof has been forthcoming and until there is proof, I will just continue to state that there was no harassment of the McCafferys – certainly not from the AVN management or myself.
Ken McCleod has claimed that I believe in reptilian monsters and mind control chips. This claim is completely false.
Mr McLeod belongs to an organisation called Stop the Australian Vaccination Network (SAVN) - a group whose goal is to shut our organisation down. They will do or say anything to achieve that goal.
Some SAVN members have sent me death threats including a statement yesterday by one of the leaders of this group that someone should ‘please put a bullet through that ghoul’s [my] brain.’
I receive phone calls in the middle of the night from people who support SAVN saying that they are ‘coming to get me’ and I should watch out; emails that say I should die in a fire and other correspondence of a similar nature.
Those who wish to understand or comment on this issue, should first take the time and trouble to access the information from both sides.
Above is what I was assured would be read on the air - below is the actual statement that WAS read on air. As you can see - what Steve Liebmann read was a fraction of what I wrote (which I felt was very brief considering the fact that the McLeod interview went on for over 8 minutes and this would have taken about 1 minute) and he has omitted any information about what the AVN does and stands for.
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If you feel that this was a very unfair situation and would like to write to Steve Liebmann about it, his contact email is steve@2ue.com.au. Please send a copy of your letter to the complaints/station manager using the feedback form found by clicking here.