Thursday, October 30, 2008

Hey, Enquirer!  Fact Check Slippery Vic Wulsin, Please!

Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati

Photo courtesy of here.

Tom Callinan, Editor
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Dear Mr. Callinan,

I’m re-submitting the following fact-check/corrections request.

Per my March 24 letter to Enquirer editorial page editor Dave Wells,my March 27 e-mail to reporter Margaret McGurk, and my June 15, 2008 letter to Enquirer reporter Malia Rulon, the paper has repeatedly published the following statement as fact: that US Congressional candidate Dr. Victoria Wulsin was employed by the Heimlich Institute. In violation of Gannett’s Newspaper Division Principals of Ethical Conduct, none of these Enquirer staffers responded to my request to substantiate or to fact-check the claim after it was reported. (I then repeatedly wrote to Gannett’s Robert J. Dickey to request clarification; he also failed to respond.)

Since then, I’ve received information that Dr. Wulsin was never employed or had any financial relationship with the Heimlich Institute Inc. (a wholly-owned corporate subsidiary of Cincinnati’s Deaconess Associations) but that, in fact, she was employed by Dr. Henry Heimlich and paid out of his personal funds. 

If that’s accurate, then Dr. Wulsin provided false information to your reporters and reporters from other news outlets, in a number of campaign statements, and in this signed January 25, 2006 federal disclosure statement in which she stated she was employed by the Heimlich Institute (page 6).

Dr. Wulsin and her campaign have repeatedly refused to answer legitimate questions about this submitted
by me and by other reporters. From Lots of Questions, Few Answers - Ohio 2nd District Race Remains Wide Open by Kevin Osborne, Cincinnati CityBeat, October 15, 2008:

Another major party candidate - the Democratic challenger- is a physician who’s given conflicting accounts about her involvement with dubious medical experiments in Africa tha tsaw HIV patients deliberately injected with malaria as a possible AIDS cure, a procedure that would be illegal in the United States.

...(Dr. Victoria) Wulsin has given several interviews to CityBeat in the past, but her campaign manager, Kevin Franck,was angered by some questions given in writing to the campaign and blocked access to the candidate. In a telephone call, Franck called CityBeat “irresponsible” for asking the question sand abruptly hung up the phone in mid-conversation.

...Wulsin’s campaign has said her malariotherapy workwas limited to a quick review. Wulsin “was given a singlepage of data from an experiment taking place in Africa,"the campaign said previously. “Dr. Wulsin’s contractwith the Heimlich Institute was terminated the day after herdraft report was submitted for review by the Institute’sboard and the board of the parent, Deaconess Foundation.”

The account, however, isn’t consistent with other comments. Although Wulsin’s report is dated December 2004,the Cincinnati Business Courier reported in January 2005 that,"Last February, (Wulsin) was hired by the Heimlich Institute to do a four-month literature review of malariotherapy.”

Franck told CityBeat that further clarification wasn’t necessary. The questions “have been asked and answered as fully as either campaign is prepared,” he wrote. “How is the public interest served by waisting (sic) column inches discussing three-year-old paperwork?”

Not suprisingly, Wulsin’s political opponent has been asking the same questions. From a recent Schmidt for Congress press release:

Was (Dr. Wulsin) actually paid by the Heimlich Institute and how much was she paid for her review of experiments on humans in Africa and China?

To my knowledge, Dr. Wulsin hasn’t answered.

Obviously the Beacon, CityBeat, and the Schmidt campaign don’t have the swat to make Dr. Wulsin answer. Maybe she won’t answer the Enquirer either. But your paper repeatedly published the claim as fact, so in the interests of providing Ohio 2nd voters with accurate information, I’m respectfully asking you to promptly assign a reporter to fact-check Dr. Wulsin’s claim and, if necessary, to publish a correction/clarification before Election Day.

Dr. Wulsin and Deaconess Associations (which would maintain the records) need to provide legitimate proof of her employment by the Heimlich Institute, such as payroll stubs and cancelled checks showing her dates of employment. Also, in a March 2008 “fact check” campaign statement, Dr. Wulsin claimed to have been under contract with the Heimlich Institute, so she should be able to provide a copy of that contract. Anything less is hearsay.

Thanks for your consideration and I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

[The Dean of Cincinnati]

Socializer!

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Bill says:
30 Oct 2008  at  10:39 am | #

This is why Wulsin refuses to file her House Ethics reports for 2005 and amend 2006. She is required to report her previous two years of employment, the income earned and who paid her. She is breaking the federal laws because she knows the information regarding who paid her and how much would destroy her. The Cincinnati Enquirer should be required to report this to the public and demand to see Wulsins 2005 and 2006 House Ethics reports. They discovered that the House does not have the 2005 report and then dropped it.

anon says:
30 Oct 2008  at  10:49 am | #

The fact-check is a great idea, but has anyone else noticed how local media have been reporting the story? It’s always framed as “Schmidt says/Wulsin denies.” Meanwhile the bigger underlying story is ignored. That story is about how for years Dr. Henry Heimlich and his dubious “institute,” sponsored and financed by Deaconess Associations, has been conducting abusive, illegal experiments on AIDS patients in China and in Africa.

Nobody is defending the experiments. In fact, everybody’s unanimous that the work is outrageous. Putting aside the obvious contradictions in her version of events and her lack of ethical responsibility by not blowing the whistle on Heimlich and Deaconess, even Dr. Wulsin has been running as far as she can away from her involvement with malariotherapy.

So why are local reporters refusing to report the story about the experiments and what’s been going on at the Heimlich Institute? Are they scared to call Dr. Heimlich or Deaconess honcho Tony Woods?

HammerHead says:
30 Oct 2008  at  02:17 pm | #

Don’t Let UP on ‘em Dean!

Stay on ‘em this time.