by Derrick Broze, Activist Post:
As Americans wait to hear the outcome of a federal court’s ruling on water fluoridation, corporate fact checkers are attempting to confuse the public. Let’s fact check the “fact checkers”.
On the final day of the lawsuit between the Fluoride Action Network (FAN) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a “fact check” was released in an attempt to quell public concern regarding the dangers of water fluoridation. The so-called fact check, CDC, Experts Say Fluoridated Water Is Safe, Contrary to RFK Jr.’s Warnings, reiterated what Americans have heard for the last 80 years: water fluoridation is safe and helps reduce cavities. Anyone who says otherwise is simply some nut on the internet who doesn’t understand science.
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
FactCheck.org wasted no time letting the reader know that trustworthy institutions like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and “multiple expert groups” want you to know that fluoride is totally safe and good for America. These groups include the American Dental Association, who is one of the original promoters of this practice, and certainly an organization that stands to lose if the public rejects fluoride as safe.
As indicated in the title, FactCheck.org was focused on tweets from independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., including one from February 4th where he said, “As president. I’m going to order the CDC to take every step necessary to remove neurotoxic fluoride from American drinking water.”
FactCheck.org also took issue with a tweet from Jason Bassler, co-founder of The Free Thought Project independent media website, and now also part of the TLAV team. Bassler’s tweet was also posted on Instagram by other accounts. Neither of the accounts attracted more than 1,500 likes. The website took particular issue with his statement that “multiple studies confirm fluoride is a neurotoxin that violates the Toxic Substances Control Act and reduces IQ in kids.”
According to FactCheck.org, the data on water fluoridation and neurotoxicity are “less clear-cut” than the social media posts claimed. Let’s take a look at their claims and statements by government officials, and compare them to what we heard in the fluoride lawsuit.
Authority Bias
From the outset it appears obvious that FactCheck.org has a bias for supporting the government’s positions, and thus, arguing in defense of government policy. Rather than simply looking at the data as it stands and drawing conclusions, FactCheck.org operates as a mouth piece for the U.S. government’s position.
For example, they start off by acknowledging that “some studies” have found an association between higher fluoride exposure during pregnancy and lower IQ in children. However, they choose to include a pretty massive caveat. Namely, that many of the studies on fluoride are “done in areas of the world with naturally high levels of fluoride in their water supplies well above the optimally recommended level”. Unfortunately, this is only partially true.
While many of the recent reviews of the peer reviewed literature on fluoride include studies which did examine levels of water fluoridation above the level recommended by the CDC, researchers also examined studies relating to fluoride concentrations similar to what Americans experience.
