Simon Singh threatened with legal action for criticising health magazine

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/oct/03/health-magazine-sue-simon-singh-twitter


Singh said many of the adverts in WDDTY (What Doctors Don't Tell You) made pseudoscientific claims. Photograph: Geraint Lewis/Rex Features

The science writer and libel reform campaigner Simon Singh has been threatened with legal action after criticising an alternative health magazine on Twitter.

Earlier this week, Singh took to the social media network to denounce a magazine called What Doctors Don't Tell You (WDDTY). Described by its editor, Lynne McTaggart, as being aimed at "intelligent women between 35-55" the magazine claims to provide information about what works and what does not work in both conventional and alternative medicines. Coverlines on the current issue include "sunbathe your diabetes away" and "how I avoided my hysterectomy through diet".

Writing on Facebook on Tuesday, McTaggart called on the magazine's supporters to fight the actions of "bully boys" who wanted to push it off newsagents' shelves. "Simon Singh, who was leading the charge, was just told by our distributor essentially to shove off and reminded that tweeting untrue statements about us or them is, well, libel," she wrote.

Singh confirmed that he had contacted Comag, the distributors of WDDTY, to say that in his opinion the magazine was largely unscientific and was promoting advice that could potentially harm readers.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. Gram used to get that magazine

I checked out one issue and promptly threw it in the recycling bin. The rest followed on the day they arrived. There's still a giant plastic tub out in the garage filled with bottles of various supplements she spent thousands of dollars on