Double standard: Emory University censors Professor Doug Bremner's blog

From Inside Higher Ed: Doug Bremner

Double Standard at Emory?

July 1, 2009

"Emory University has been accused repeatedly over the last year of looking the other way while one of its prominent physicians [Charles Nemeroff] built extremely close ties to the pharmaceutical industry and -- critics charge -- failed to adequately report those ties as required by university and federal regulations.

But what if you are an Emory professor who happens to differ with the pharmaceutical industry? Then, it appears, Emory watches you closely -- and if you are a blogger, the university can tell you that you must remove the Emory name from your Web site. That's why a recent post on the J. Douglas Bremner's blog Before You Take That Pill is called "I Am Removing the Name of My University From This Blog." Bremner is professor of psychiatry and radiology at Emory and as his blog title suggests (as does his book with the same name), he is an avid critic of the pharmaceutical industry.

In the post, he notes that he was recently ordered to remove the Emory name both by the interim chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and by the medical school's executive associate dean for faculty affairs. In the letters, which he provided to Inside Higher Ed, they tell Bremner to remove Emory's name, logo and letterhead from his blog because none of them can be used for "non-Emory business." He was also told to report on when he had removed Emory from his blog.

The letters cite complaints that the university received about a blog post Bremner made in January in which he criticized the eviction of a man with bipolar disorder who was being forced out of his apartment for smoking. Bremner made his point in the form of a mock letter "To Whom It May Concern" giving his blessing for the man to continue to smoke. According to Bremner's Emory superiors, complaints they received suggested that he was making "clinical recommendations for a patient you do not know and have never examined," and these postings made them feel the need to tell him to stop using the Emory name."

Read more of the article at Inside Higher Ed.

The letter in question

The satirical letter in question, was written by Bremner for Philip Dawdy, investigative journalist, who authors the mental health news blog Furious Seasons. Dawdy wrote about his landlord changing the apartment lease to state that smoking was not allowed in apartments, after Dawdy had been residing there for years, and is a smoker. Bremner's letter, though satirical in nature, acknowledges people with mental health labels, such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia often smoke; it also brings up the topic of housing discrimination as a result.

This article, written by Dawdy gives some perspective on how Doug Bremner's letter was written, and why.

Truth and transparency needed

Freedom of academia, freedom of speech, mental illness discrimination, smoking and bipolar disorder, psychiatrists being investigated by Senator Grassley--all reasons why these blogs are important, give much discussion to a corrupt, pharma-funded and bought FDA, and not to forget to mention the bar room brawl writing of the new DSM-V, transparency indeed.