Healthy Skepticism Library item: 3844

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Publication type: news

Former New England Journal editor calls for firing of CMAJ publisher
Canadian Press 2006 Mar 3
http://bodyandhealth.canada.com/channel_health_news_details.asp?news_id=9428&news_channel_id=131&channel_id=131&rot=11

Notes:

Ralph Faggotter’s Comments:

The sacking of Hoey and Todkill has triggered an avalanche of negative publicity and events from which the credibility of the CMAJ and the CMA may never fully recover.

Full text:

Former New England Journal editor calls for firing of CMAJ publisher
Provided by: Canadian Press
Mar. 3, 2006

TORONTO (CP) – The former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine called Friday on the Canadian Medical Association to fire the publisher of the embattled Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Dr. Jerome Kassirer, who is a member of the CMAJ editorial board, wrote CMA president Dr. Ruth Collins-Nakai urging her to fire journal publisher Graham Morris.

Morris touched off a firestorm Feb. 20 when he abruptly dismissed CMAJ editor Dr. John Hoey and senior deputy editor Anne Marie Todkill in what is widely believed to be a conflict over editorial independence at the journal.

Morris has insisted all along he let the two go because he felt that after a decade under Hoey’s stewardship, the journal needed a fresh approach.

A conference call Friday arranged to try to broker a truce between the journal’s editorial board and the CMA leadership ended without a resolution. The board is fighting to have Hoey and Todkill reinstated – along with two editors who quit in the wake of the firings – and measures put in place to ensure the editorial autonomy of the journal.

“All I can say is that it was frustrating and disappointing, but not surprising,” Kassirer said after the call. He said further discussions are planned.

Morris did not return several phone messages on Friday. A person in his office said Morris didn’t want to talk to the media as he didn’t “have any news to report today.”

Likewise the leadership of the CMA has refused all requests for interviews on the conflict at the journal, referring all calls to Morris.

When asked for a comment on the calls for the publisher’s dismissal, a CMA spokesperson pointed out that the CMA board had expressed its confidence in the publisher at a meeting last weekend. The two-paragraph statement is posted on the CMA’s website.

“So you have the top bosses of CMA and they are expressing confidence in Graham Morris,” Carole Lavigne said from Ottawa on Friday.

The statement also “reaffirmed” the CMA board’s support for the journal’s “continued commitment to editorial independence and maintaining excellence in the science and art of medicine.”

Kassirer, who was himself let go by the board of the New England Journal over a conflict involving the commercialization of that publication, said the CMA should fire Morris for interfering with the editorial freedom of the journal, for firing Hoey and Todkill without clearing the dismissals with the journal’s oversight committee, and for having no succession plan in place when he fired the top editors.

Dr. Stephen Choi, a deputy editor under Hoey, initially agreed to serve as acting editor. But a week later he quit – a move Kassirer said was provoked by a refusal on Morris’s part to accept guidelines that would ensure the independence of the journal.

On Friday, Choi said his lawyer has advised him not to elaborate on the reason for his departure. He and others at the journal were required about a year ago to sign confidentiality agreements and all have refrained from publicly discussing the developments.

“After the dismissal of John and Anne Marie, it became apparent to me that for professional and personal reasons that it was impossible to continue working at the journal,” he said.

Another editor, Sally Murray, quit with Choi, leaving the journal without any full-time editors.

Hoey had a number of disputes with the CMA and with Morris during his decade at the journal’s helm. In recent months he publicly accused Morris of censorship when Morris demanded the journal expunge a portion of a news article to which the Canadian Pharmacists Association had objected.

The article was highly critical of the way pharmacists were selling the emergency contraceptive Plan B, saying they were demanding and retaining personal information on the women who purchased the drug.

As well, the publisher demanded changes to an article on incoming federal Health Minister Tony Clement, the headline of which called Clement “two-tier Tony.” A more favourable article replaced the original on the journal’s website.

Meanwhile Friday the Canadian Association of Journalists issued a statement saying the group is “deeply troubled” by the firings and calling on the CMA to “clarify its position on editorial independence in the pages of the CMAJ.”

“There is great concern within the journalistic community about the appearance of interference with editorial freedom at the CMAJ,” said Robert Cribb, past president of the association.

“The CMAJ can either be a progressive voice that tackles important issues or a mouthpiece for the medical community. It can’t be both.”