U.S. Attorney Edward Martin Jr. has contacted medical journals over alleged bias.
A federal prosecutor sent a letter to another medical journal, the New England Journal of Medicine, the journal said on April 23.
The journal received a letter from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, a spokeswoman told The Epoch Times in an email.
Dr. Eric Rubin, who works at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and is the journal’s editor-in-chief, responded to the letter by telling the office that the journal “publishes evidence-based scientific information that physicians can trust in delivering high-quality medical care.”
Rubin wrote that the journal’s editors, all practicing physicians, “recognize our responsibility to doctors and patients” and “use rigorous peer review and editorial processes to ensure the objectivity and reliability of the research we publish.”
He concluded: “We support the editorial independence of medical journals and their First Amendment rights to free expression. The Journal actively fosters scholarly scientific dialogue and remains steadfast in its commitment to supporting authors, readers, and patients.”
The spokeswoman did not respond when asked about the contents of the letter from the U.S. attorney’s office, which is headed by Edward Martin Jr. and has not returned The Epoch Times’ requests for comment.
Martin recently sent a letter to CHEST, another medical journal, the publishers of the journal told The Epoch Times in an email on April 21. In that missive, which was published online without permission from the publishers, Martin wrote that he has become aware that “more and more journals and publications like CHEST journal are conceding that they are partisans in various scientific debates—that is, that they have a position for which they are advocating either due to advertisement (under postal code) or sponsorship (under relevant fraud regulations).”
He requested answers to a series of questions, including how the journal’s leadership assesses their responsibilities to “protect the public from misinformation” and whether the journal accepts articles from competing viewpoints.
