Last month our Will Maddox wrote about a Dallas cardiologist named Peter McCullough, who had made some newsworthy statements in December when he appeared as a guest on The Joe Rogan Experience, by some estimates the largest media platform in the United States. McCullough works at an esteemed Dallas practice called HeartPlace, and he has an impressive résumé. So it’s remarkable that he thinks there are 500 U.S. doctors who are aware of a global effort, orchestrated by Moderna, Pfizer, leaders of major religions, and others to promote a “mass vaccination” that is harmful to some people and not needed by many others.
On Rogan’s show, McCullough said: “I told Tucker Carlson and many others. It seems to me early on there was an intentional very comprehensive suppression of early treatment [of COVID] in order to promote fear, suffering, isolation, hospitalization, and death.”
Will’s report on McCullough’s Joe Rogan appearance was measured and fair and based on facts. It provided context and links to reputable sources that debunk a lot of McCullough’s claims. It was solid journalism.
Now I’d like to switch gears and offer some opinions. Dr. Peter McCullough is a kook, and the lawyer who sent us a cease-and-desist letter on his behalf, Parisa Fishback, has a wonderful name but is not good at writing cease-and-desist letters. Again: that’s all in my opinion. Fishback is the president and general counsel of a California-based anti-vaccination-mandate-for-kids outfit called The Unity Project, on whose advisory council McCullough serves (facts). In addition to that work, she is a bankruptcy attorney and real estate broker (fact) who runs a charity that involves luxury cars (fact), which she has described thusly: “At Cars N’ Causes, we are driven to end slavery and are racing to save the lives of victims of human trafficking right here in America” (word play!). Fishback was the wrong choice to send a cease-and-desist letter based on a defamation claim (opinion), because, among other reasons, she spelled it “deafamation.” (Giggle.)
Parisa Fishback is a bad speller. This is a super fun fact. Here is evidence of her incompetence when it comes to using the English language, the top of her cease-and-desist letter to D Magazine on behalf of McCullough:
I bet Parisa Fishback believes that written deafamatory statements constitute liable, and she thinks tort reform involves pastries.
I am having some fun here, obviously. But this is important. McCullough is saying stuff that most medical professionals disagree with. When we shed light on that fact, we got a threatening letter from an actual lawyer who writes “Esq” after her name. Some media organizations would at that point back down, button up, lower their heads, do anything to avoid costly (if groundless) litigation. Not here.
Joe Rogan can continue to have kooks on his show and make millions peddling vitamin supplements by spreading misinformation under the guise of “just asking questions,” but when those kooks threaten legal action to suppress our First Amendment right and our duty to bring attention to their kookiness, we have only one thing to say in response:
Take your best shot. But if this winds up in a court of law, we will deafinitely win.
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