Consulted to help support the research was a paid consultant by the pharmaceutical industry and thats not always apparent. Andrea benson there were girls that were really, really young, but honestly, thats what the johns want. Carol roblesroman there should not be a vehicle that has made the trafficking of kids so easy. Hey, you want to order a pizza . Sure. Hey, you want to order a kid . Just as easy. Lisa tucked into the Communications Decency act is a short provision known as section 230 that shields websites and internet platforms like facebook, twitter, and backpage from liability. Emma llanso section 230 is really one of the cornerstones of free speech online. Lisa critics of yours will say this is just a bunch of legal acrobatics that protect pimps that protect traffickers while kids are being raped. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] sharyl welcome to full measure. Im sharyl attkisson. Our cover story this week may lead you to question much of what you hear and read about scientific and medical studies. Its a cautionary note issued by respected Industry Leaders who say unseen interests are exerting enormous control over research and what is or isnt published. Their startling claim that a large percentage of articles in prestigious medical journals are simply not to be believed. We begin with dr. Marcia angell of harvard, a pioneer in the medical journal field. Dr. Angell i think physicians and the public have come to believe that drugs are much better and much safer than they really are. Sharyl what makes dr. Marcia angells skepticism so remarkable is where she places much of the blame on researchers and medical journals. That includes the prestigious new england journal of medicine, where she worked for 20 years and was its first female editorinchief from 1999 to 2000. Most people probably think an article is in a journal, probably written at a university based on independent study, and thats that. Dr. Angell it used to be that way, as you describe it, pretty simple, and it began to change as the pharmaceutical industry became richer, more powerful, more influential, and began to take over the sponsorship of probably most Clinical Research. Sharyl but before we get to that, we begin with a more obvious example of questionable science the chocolate diet. It was publicized by a Slick Marketing Campaign and even a song. A scientist in germany recommends a chocolate treat. Sharyl the study was a hoax by a journalist to show how easy it is to get shoddy research published. John bohannan i already knew that there were fake journals who would publish this stuff, but would journalists pick it up and turn it into a big story . And the sad answer is yes, very big. Sharyl a chocolate diet is one thing. But more and more, prestigious journals are getting caught inadvertently publishing false studies. Whats your view of how much we can trust the articles that appear in these prestigious medical journals . Dr. Howard pomeranz one always has to be aware of the possibility that somebody who is an author or coauthor or someone who is consulted to help support the research was a paid consultant by the pharmaceutical industry and thats not always apparent. Sharyl dr. Howard pomeranz is a neuroophthalmologist at the Hofstra Northwell school of medicine. Hes authored dozens of Journal Articles and says many studies are written by academic researchers fraught with conflicts of interest. In some cases, it sounds like its nothing more than advertising by an employee that works for a drug company. Dr. Pomeranz it is and i think thats often the way you have to look at it. Dr. Angell i came to the new england journal of medicine in 1979. Starting about then was when you saw the Drug Companies assert more and more control until finally they, over the next couple of decades, they began to treat the researchers as hired hands. They would design the research themselves. You know you can do a lot of mischief in how you design a trial. Or well test this drug and well tell you whether it can be published or not, and so if its a positive study, its published, if its a negative study, itll never see the light of day. Sharyl that happened in 2000. The makers of an experimental aids vaccine threatened to sue dr. James kahn, their lead researcher at the university of california, san francisco, for 7 million to keep him from publishing Study Results showing the vaccine didnt wo dr. Angell an official of the company said something to the effect of we have put 30 million into that study, we have our rights, or Something Like that. [laughter] sharyl angell says as she applied Due Diligence to the many studies submitted to the new england journal of medicine, it started to feel like a losing battle. Dr. Angell i would call up and say, okay, youve shown that your drug is pretty good. But theres not a single side effect. Any drug that does anything is going to have some side effects. And i had people say, well, the sponsor wont let me. And so, i became to be extremely distrustful of most of the research that was published. We did our very best, we often rejected things because it was clearly biased, but anything we rejected always ended up in another journal. Sharyl angell left the new england journal of medicine in 2000, but kept her eye on the journal industry, which she says resisted meaningful efforts to rein in conflicts of interest. In 2009, she wrote an article that famously declared, it is simply no longer possible to believe much of the Clinical Research that is published. What would you say is the state of the journal landscape today and the new england journal of medicine, particularly . Dr. Angell i think that that role that the new england journal used to fill, one was the role of being skeptical, the other was the role of caring about the ethics of the whole system. I think the journal has given that up, the new england journal of medicine has given that up. Sharyl the new england journal of medicine declined our interview requests, but told us, since 1984, we have requested author disclosures. In 2009, the journal says it helped pioneer a universal form requesting that authors report all relevant financial conflicts during the most recent three years. And it posts the form and study sponsorship. Besides dr. Angell, another powerful voice is also weighing in. The current editorinchief of the british journal lancet, dr. Richard horton, wrote a scathing editorial saying, much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue. Science has taken a turn towards darkness. Annie waldman be skeptical about everything. Be skeptical about every study that you read, whether its in the new england journal of medicine or some journal youve never heard of. Sharyl Annie Waldman writes for the nonprofit propublica. Annie waldman well, in academia, there are a lot of expectations. Some of it is the influence of wanting to get a promotion, wanting to get tenure, wanting to get another job somewhere else. If you get a result which is not what you want, do you still go ahead and publish it . Perhaps you have millions of dollars of funding behind it. Sharyl besides misleading doctors and the public, fake science and provable fraud can cost taxpayers millions. Dr. Eric poehlman got 2. 9 million in federal grants and published hundreds of medical articles on obesity and menopause before he got caught fabricating data while at the university of Vermont School of medicine. In 2005, he became the first academic researcher sentenced to prison for fraudulent studies. From 1992 to 2012, taxpayers shelled out 58 million to scientists whose papers were later retracted due to misconduct. What do you see as a potential risk or peril of doctors reading these Journal Articles that may be fraught with conflicts of interest or may be inaccurate . Dr. Pomeranz it ends up that a lot of us end up getting bought by the pharmaceutical industry. Interestingly, we rely a lot on the pharmaceutical industry to tell us about whats good about their drug and to convince us to use it, and were not as critically inquisitive as we should be about, you know, whether a drug is, is truly helpful. What are the side effects . What are the downsides of using the medications . Sharyl today, angell is at harvard medical school. She says experience has taught her to question nearly all the studies she reads in medical journals or hears about on the news. Dr. Angell anything youre going to put in your body, i think, there should be more than one study showing roughly the same results, ideally coming at it from different directions. What you want to see is something thats not going to hit the front pages of the newspaper, its going to be way in the back that says yet again, this drug has been shown to be helpful. Thats the one you should take, not the one that gets the headlines. Sharyl some journals are responding to the criticism. The prestigious british medical journal recently started requiring researchers to share data and allows dissenters to comment on its articles. For its part, the new england journal of medicine says experts put hundreds of hours of work in on each published paper to ensure they meet exacting standards. Ahead on full measure. Child sex trafficking that operates in plain sight and the law that makes it possible fios is not cable. Were a 100 fiber optic network. And with the new fios gigabit connection. You get our fastest. Internet ever. With download speeds up to 940 megs 20 times faster than most people have. Switch to fios gigabit connection with tv and phone for 79. 99 a month online for the first year. Plus hbo for one year and multiroom dvr service for two years, all with a twoyear agreement. And switching has never been easier. Get out of your contract with up to a 500 credit to help cover your early termination fee. Go to fiosgigabit. Com sharyl our recent reporting on sex trafficking raised use of websites that allegedly tolerate child sex trafficking. According to the National Center for missing and exploited children, 73 of children trafficked for prostitution are found on a site they identify as backpage. How can that be . In part because of a 20yearold law that protects internet free speech and, by consequence, websites used for sex trafficking. Andrea benson there were girls that were really, really young, but honestly, thats what the johns want and so its not something that we even thought about at all. Lisa when Andrea Benson worked as a prostitute in portland, oregon, she knew that the clients wanted their girls young. Andrea even when i was in the life, i put that my age was 19 and guys would just be like, well, you dont look like youre 19. You look like youre younger. You look like my granddaughter. You look like my daughter. Lisa benson claims she was trafficked on backpage, an online classified advertising site. Carol roblesroman this is a Business Model that makes 9 million a month using this exploitive model. Legal momentum, a group suing backpage on behalf of a jane doe client who claims to have been trafficked on backpage, and two other advocacy groups who support victims of sex trafficking, including children. Carol these are kids. These are young kids, these are minors and theres no justification, theres no way to defend it. Lisa no one alleges that backpage is running a prostitution or trafficking ring. Sen. Claire mccaskill they did not turn away ads selling children. Lisa however, in january, a Senate Homeland security subcomittee on investigations concluded that backpage knowingly facilitated online sex trafficking. Among the findings, backpage has knowingly concealed evidence of criminality by systematically editing its adult ads. And backpage knows that it facilitates prostitution and child sex trafficking. Carol there should not be a trafficking of kids so easy, like, hey, do you want to order a pizza . Sure. Hey, do you want to order a kid . Just as easy. Lisa a 20yearold law has made it difficult for critics to shut backpage or any similar site down. Tucked into the Communications Decency act is a short provision known as section 230 that shields websites and internet platforms like facebook, twitter, and backpage from liability over objectionable content posted by users. Emma llanso section 230 is really one of the cornerstones of free speech online. Lisa emma llanso works with the center for democracy and technology, which is funded, in part, by Silicon Valley to prevent restrictions on the internet. Emma if i were, for some reason, to tweet something defamatory about you, you could of course sue me for saying something defamatory, but you couldnt sue twitter for having published that defamation worldwide, and thats a really, really key protection. Lawsuits over the content of the speech that their users are posting every day, they would very quickly basically be sued out of existence. Lisa twitter was sued in 2016 for allegedly providing Material Support for islamic extremists who killed two american contractors, but the case was dismissed using protections in section 230. According to the congressional report, backpage tried to appear as though it was fighting trafficking by editing out code words for minors like fresh and new to town to make the ads look quote cleaner than ever. But congressional investigators found backpage was actively allowing the traffickers to operate and pocketing the ad revenue. Carol by fixing the ad, you dont cure the criminality. Right . Theres still a kid thats being listed online. Lisa what about these Civil Liberties and the free speech advocates who say, if you were to win, your case would have very significant implications on free speech, very broadly across the globe . Carol yeah, there would be implications on free speech. You cannot sell Children Online for sex. Thats the implication. The First Amendment does not protect criminal conduct. Lisa critics of yours will say this is just a bunch of legal acrobatics that protect pimps and that protect traffickers while kids are being raped. Emma these are a bunch of legal standards that have existed in our country for 20 years to protect the ability for all of us to use the internet for freedom of speech and access to information. We would not have the incredible array of online publications, social media sites, search engines, other websites that we have without a law like section 230. Sharyl there is a bill working its way through congress that would amend the broad protections of section 230 and hold publishers accountable for child trafficking. Page backpage fios is not cable. Were a 100 fiber optic network. And with the new fios gigabit connection. You get our fastest. Internet ever. With download speeds up to 940 megs 20 times faster than most people have. Switch to fios gigabit connection with tv and phone for 79. 99 a month online for the first year. Plus hbo for one year and multiroom dvr service for two years, all with a twoyear agreement. And switching has never been easier. Get out of your contract with up to a 500 credit to help cover your early termination fee. Go to fiosgigabit. Com fios is not cable. Were a 100 fiber optic network. And with the new fios gigabit connection. You get our Fastest Internet ever. With download speeds up to 940 megs 20 times faster than most people have. Switch to fios gigabit connection with tv and phone for 79. 99 a month online for the first year. Plus hbo for one year and multiroom dvr service for two years, all with a twoyear agreement. And switching has never been easier. Get out of you contract with up to a 500 credit to help cover your early termination fee. Go to fiosgigabit. Com matters. A break up at the department who buys the defense weapons. Why the new plan wont sharyl last year, when a turkish man was arrested leaving the u. S. With gun parts in his luggage, it seemed like an open and shut case. Prosecutors said that on several occasions hed tried to traffic dozens of semiautomatic pistol parts. But something the Border Patrol did has privacy advocates up in arms. Agents seized and searched the suspects cell phone without a warrant at the airport. Cause of Action Institute says the warrantless search has dire implications for all of us. The groups Erica Marshall recently told me why theyre challenging the practice in court. Erica this case is United States vs. Hamza kolsuz and the case involves a turkish citizen named mr. Kolsuz who was arrested at Dulles International airport in virginia where he was set to fly back to istanbul. Customs and Border Patrol agents found handgun parts in his checked luggage. During that arrest, the customs and Border Patrol agents actually seized his cell phone and, at that point, they initiated a monthlong forensic search of all the data on his cell phone and it ultimately generated a nearly 900page report detailing all of his text messages, his phone call logs, and his gps coordinates for the past couple years. Sharyl so, what is your objection if he was trying to move gun parts in his luggage unlawfully, isnt it a good thing that we caught him . Erica mr. Kolsuz should have definitely been arrested for trying to export those gun parts. The focus of cause for action in this case is the actual search of his cell phone that was performed incident to that arrest. Sharyl what is the governments argument for why it had a right to do that . Erica anytime you travel into the United States, the government has a limited right to search, for example, your luggage or your car, to make sure youre not bringing any contraband make sure youre not taking out any undeclared amounts of currency, for example. So the government is saying that it searched the cell phone as part of this narrow right it has to do warrantless searches at the border. Sharyl so you think the government has expanded the intended power to search beyond what its supposed to be . Erica cause of action believes that once mr. Kolsuz was arrested, he was no longer crossing the border, his cell phone was no longer crossing the border and, at that point, this falls under the traditional 4th amendment rule that you need a warrant to do a search of a cell phone. Sharyl why should ordinary Americans Care about this, ordinary americans that arent going to be moving gun parts in their luggage and dont see a problem with this . Erica thats a great question and the answer is very simple. Under Current Department of Homeland Security policy, they proport to have the authority to stop any person, an american or a foreign traveler, whos coming into the United States or leaving the United States, and device they are carrying including a laptop, cell phone, or tablet or ipad that person has. Sharyl so a traveler here going to visit family members in europe could be subjected, theoretically, to having their cell phone and computer devices seized and searched . Erica yes, and its not just theoretically. There have been so many news reports of late about individuals being stopped at the border, at the airport, the custom agents have been detaining people, asking them to provide access by entering a pin or code, for example. At that point, if the person doesnt consent to the search, the customs and Border Patrol agents have essentially said they have the right to seize that device, send it off site to a complete forensic search and complete imaging of all data on that phone or device, including information that might be its basically violating the privacy rights of Everyday Americans and also the specific rights that certain travelers, like business travelers, journalists, or lawyers have in protecting confidential information that they often carry on their laptops. Sharyl cause of action says Homeland Security searched 5,000 Electronic Devices this past february. First few months of next on 2017. Full measure. Dogs being used in medical fios is not cable. Were a 100 fiber optic network. Full measure. Dogs being used in medical and with the new fios gigabit connection. You get our Fastest Internet ever. With download speeds up to 940 megs 20 times faster than most people have. 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Sharyl in march, full measure highlighted a report revealing that a half dozen Veterans Administration hospitals across the country were conducting sometimes painful experiments on dogs. A Bipartisan Group in congress was trying to stop those experiments. Now, one of the hospitals in los angeles has said it will stop animal testing. Anthony bellotti were not talking about cosmetic companies, were not talking about pharmaceutical companies, were not talking about charities. Were talking about beltway abuse, Government Agencies experimenting on these dogs. Sharyl Anthony Bellotti heads white coat waste project, a group that wants to stop taxpayerfunded animal experiments. Can you summarize what you learned about whats going on here . Anthony what we learned is that there are over 1100 dogs, beagles, other hounds that are currently being experimented on in Government Agencies. Sharyl bellotti says the v. A. Falsely declared it wasnt experimenting on dogs. For example, the v. A. Research facility in richmond, virginia reported using no dogs or other animals in fiscal year 2016. Anthony what we found was that they were indeed experimenting on these dogs. Were talking about experiments involving high levels of pain and distress unrelieved with anesthesia or pain relief. Sharyl white coat waste and the members of congress are still pressuring the other v. A. Hospitals involved to cancel their animal testing, too. Next week on full measure. We let you win on a dirty Little Washington secret. Some of the most influential positions in Congress Come with a pricetag. Nick penniman leads the group issue one. Its new report, the price of power, exposes how members of congress serve as cash cows for their partys political machinery. Nick it is borderline extortion. Sharyl the price of power, next week on full measure. Until then, we will be searching for more stories that hold powers accountable. Coming up on Government Matters, it has been months in the makes, the split, the plan for the extreme makeover in the Pentagon Acquisition shop. Gsas Innovation Hub tries to overhaul the way the government buys software. Nick explains why that could be critical. President Donald Trumps choice to lead the Human Resources office drops out as they hand down new execute hand new marching orders. Government matters starts right now. From washington d. C. And around the world, this is Government Matters with francis rose. Thanks f