Nicklas Johnson · morons.org - UPDATE: Rolling Stone / Drudge Misquoted Director

Morons in the News: UPDATE: Rolling Stone / Drudge Misquoted Director

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In an update to an earlier report, it has come to light that Rolling Stone and Drudge have misquoted Dr. Cabaj, who never said that 25% of new HIV infections are intentional...
Posted by annoyed spatula on Jan. 22, 2003 18:05 UTC
16 comments from readers. Join the discussion!

In an earlier story I said to take the Drudge Report article that 25% of newly HIV+ men intentionally infected themselves with HIV with a pound of salt, and said that the number sounded laughably high. Turns out I was right.

I emailed Dr. Bob Cabaj, to whom the 25% figure that appears in Rolling Stone was attributed, and he was kind enough to email me back. What he actually said was "a goodly percentage may deliberately sero-convert, but we have no way to know the actual number." Dr. Cabaj indicated that he asked the fact-checker to fix the quote, but the fact-checker did not follow through.

Dr. Cabaj agreed with me that the figure of 25% sounds way too high, but again pointed out that there's no hard research to back up a figure.

So there you have it. The 25% number is false and a misquote that should never have been sent to print. Shame on Rolling Stone for printing a misquote to sensationalize their "bug chaser" story, and shame on Drudge for helping them along.

---Nick

Additional resources:

Questions about "bug chasers" from HIVstopsWithMe.org
Barebacking and bug chasing - why are people doing it? from PlanetOut.com
Chasing the Bug from gazeguide.com
Stories about HIV on morons.org
I'm riding in AIDS/Lifecycle II

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Posted by Libc on Jan. 22, 2003 18:17

Impressive work, Nick.

gr00vey: indeed, good job!

Posted by Clair Voyant from Florida on Jan. 23, 2003 07:51

Maybe you should email Jann Wenner, editor of Rolling Stone (who himself is gay) with a copy of your email from Dr. Cabaj. One would hope that he'd take the moral high road and yank the story, or else alter it so that the facts are correct, rather than leave it as is for the sake of sensationalism.

Clair Voyant: Oops, too late...my Rolling Stone came in the mail today (two weeks late) and...

spatula: Rolling Stone should issue an immediate retraction and apology.

Posted by Hey Im Queer on Jan. 23, 2003 12:31

If I have the choice of reading The Drudge Report and cleaning my comb, guess which I choose? No contest.

Posted by Clair Voyant from Florida on Jan. 23, 2003 19:26

http://msnbc.com/news/863259.asp?0cl=c1#BODY

The shitstorm begins. Dr. Cabaj unequivocally states in this article that he did not quote the 25% figure.

spatula: And you heard it here first :-)

Posted by Damion on Jan. 23, 2003 21:21

Here si the link to the Rolling Stone article in its entirety: But here is the Rolling Stone story in its entirety:

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/newsarticle.asp?nid=17380

We have all been misled by Drudge! Rolling Stone has acted responsibly. Cabaj is not quoted as saying that 25% of new HIV cases are attributed to bug-chasing. This is the passage: "Cabaj... admits numbers are very hard to come by. Some men consciously seek the virus, openly declaring themselves bug chasers, he says, while many more are just as actively seeking HIV but are in denial and wouldn't call themselves bug chasers. Cabaj estimates that at least twenty-five percent of all newly infected gay men fall into that category.

With about 40,000 new infections in the United States per year, according to government reports, that would mean around 10,000 each year are attributable to that more liberal definition of bug chasing."

slv138: Well did he say "a goodly percentage", "25%" or just "an estimated 25%"? "25%"...

spatula: Except that Cabaj didn't say that. That's the point.

Posted by spatula from the morons.org lair on Jan. 23, 2003 22:53

Here's a good article by Andrew Sullivan on Salon.com:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/sullivan/2003/01/24/rolling/index.html

Clair Voyant: Wow, and Morons.org even gets a plug!

Posted by Pansy Bedwetter on Jan. 24, 2003 15:55

morons you all are, not surprising tho. here is drudge's headline: MAG: 25% OF NEW HIV-INFECTED GAY MEN SOUGHT OUT VIRUS, SAYS SAN FRAN HEALTH OFFICIAL. drudge quoted the magazine, morons

spatula: ...without doing even the simplest checking of the most highly-supicious...

Posted by spatula from the morons.org lair on Jan. 24, 2003 18:34

Here's another update to this story:

http://web.morons.org/article.jsp?sectionid=1&id=2779