Posted 4:04 PM by Scoobie Davis

Who Is Cooking The Data?
Earlier today, I jokingly suggested that the Washington Times was providing some ideological balance in their editorials and op-ed pieces. One Times op-ed that illustrates that I was not serious in this assessment is one by James Dobson, who takes on the American Academy of Pediatrics for endorsing gay and lesbian adoption of children (click here to read the piece). Dobson writes of "the academy's apparent willingness to distort the scientific literature on this subject." Dobson goes on to accuse the AAP of having "chosen to sacrifice scientific integrity in order to advance an activist agenda."

It is not my brief to say whether Dobson's accusations are correct; I simply don't have the time or the patience to do a literature review of scientific studies on the topic. It is my place, however, to point out that Dobson is hardly the person to make accusations of the misuse of research to advance a political agenda. Dobson and his organization, Focus on the Family, extensively used the discredited research of Dr. Paul Cameron to legitimize the sectarian right's anti-gay agenda (Dobson isn't the only one to use Cameron as a source;self-appointed virtue czar William Bennett has knowingly used Cameron's phony statistics to disinform millions; so has Dr. Laura). In fact, Cameron is such a well-known pariah in the scientific community that it is hard to believe that Dobson didn't know that Cameron cooked his research.