Mike Adams: Natural News, “everyone’s favorite über-quack #1 anti-science website”
"Natural News is a website for the sale of various dietary supplements, promotion of alternative medicine, controversial nutrition and health claims, scientific fake news, and various conspiracy theories."
January 4, 2019 | Genetic Literacy Project
PROFILE DETAILS
Michael Allen “Mike” Adams a.k.a. The Health Ranger (born 1969 or 1967 in Lawrence, KS) is publisher of Natural News (formerly News Target) which promotes alternative health and natural lifestyle products online. It’s estimated that the site gets 6.5 million hits per month, with 31% coming through organic search.
Adams is an ardent anti-technology, conspiracy theory promoting pro-organic advocate who claims biotechnology scientists “are the most despicable humanoids to walk the face of this planet” and that they promote corporate “junk science” and are anti-human.[1] He has promoted such causes as AIDS denialism, 9/11 truther conspiracies, Barack Obama citizenship ‘birther’ claims and is believer in ‘dangerous’ chemtrails and vaccines. He aligns himself with President Trump, portraying the ‘mainstream press” as purveyors of fake news in an attempt to suppress truth tellers, like himself, and has emerged as a rising star in the alt-right movement.
Adams’ NaturalNews.com website has been characterized by Brian Dunning, who runs the science-based Skeptoid, as the #1 “worst anti-science website”. Physician blogger Steven Novella, a clinical neurologist and assistant professor at Yale University School of Medicine, characterized Adams as “a dangerous conspiracy-mongering crank.” Oncologist David Gorski (aka Orac) called Natural News as “the wretchedest, scummiest, and quackiest” website on the Internet. Alan Levinovitz, a James Madison University professor writing for Slate, wrote: NaturalNews is … a cesspool of pseudo-scientific insanity seasoned generously with political vitriol and outlandish conspiracy theories.”
[...]
Career
Mike Adams, the self-styled “Health Ranger”, is the founder and owner of Natural News. According to his own website his interest in alternative nutrition was sparked by developing type II diabetes.[4] He is a raw foods enthusiast and “holistic nutritionist”. He claims to eat no processed foods, dairy, sugar, meat from mammals or food products containing additives such as MSG[5] and has also contributed to and guest hosted Infowars.com, a syndicated talk radio show hosted by Alex Jones in which he fear mongers over conservative conspiracy theories.
[...]
Adams advocates consumer privacy laws, supported the now-defunct California anti-spam law, and is an avid writer and researcher on a variety of topics ranging from alternative health to political conspiracies. In 2014 he launched a “food lab” at which he claims to conduct tests to find heavy metal and other toxins in foods and products. He compared the products he tests with the ‘health’ and ‘toxin free’ lines of products offered for sale on his website. There is no sign this “lab” is still in existence.
[...]
Mike Adams is also executive director of the “Consumer Wellness Research Center” (a.k.a. Terra Christa Communications, Inc.), which was created as a 501c3 non-profit organization in 1995 but has failed to filed IRS tax returns for the group since 2003.[11] The organization continues to promote “grant making” activities, listing recipients as recently as 2011 while soliciting donations and listing sponsors on its website.[12] The site proclaims, “The CWC needs your support right now to launch its Prenatal Wellness Program.” Adams corporate sponsor on this site is Integrated Health Products, whose supplements carry the Mike Adams/Natural News Seal of Approval.[13]
[...]
Publishing
Truth Publishing
Adams runs News Target (Natural News) health Web publishing organization, which is ‘based’ overseas in Taiwan under the name Truth Publishing. It lists its address as 2055 N. Kolb Road in Tuscon, AZ (a vacant building listed available for lease). Truth in Publishing appears to be a foreign business name which operated in the U.S. under “Webseed” — an Arizona “retail sales” corporation registered in Mike Adams’ wife’s name listing him as president and director at a private mail boxes location.[16] Via Natural News publishing, Adams makes a wide range of conspiracy claims ranging from government controlled “weather weapons”[17] to government-corporate conspiracies involving chemtrails and GMOs to commit genocide.
According to reports published by Adams, he became involved with Truth Publishing and became its “primary writer;” however, earlier postings by Adams refer to him as the organization’s founder and CEO....
[...]
Advocacy
Adams has been active in various conspiracy campaigns. He is a frequent and ardent opponent of vaccinations [31] promoting claims that flu and other vaccines are dangerous risks to human health and linked to autism and other disorders.[32]. He believes in the danger of chemtrails. Most recently has focused on anti-GMO lobbying. Adams was a frequently noted as an influential player drumming up support for and funding the Prop 37 anti-GMO labeling campaign in California. Criticisms
Phil Plait, and American astronomer, skeptic and blogger, has accused Adams of using Sockpuppet (Internet) accounts to inflate vote counts in the Shorty Awards (Joe Mercola was also accused of doing this)[33], specifically in response to a skeptical campaign to upvote Dr. Rachel Dunlop. After he lost as a result of having his fraudulent votes revoked, he posted a number of articles criticizing the Shorty Awards.[34] Dan Berger draws alt-med cartoons for them, though Adams comes up with the concepts.
Among Adams most outspoken critics are David Gorski (Orac) of ScienceBlogs,[35] who says Natural News is “one of the most wretched hives of scum and quackery on the Internet,” calling him the most “blatant purveyor of the worst kind of quackery and paranoid anti-physician and anti-medicine conspiracy theories anywhere on the Internet”,[36] as well as Peter Bowditch of the website Ratbags,[37] and Jeff McMahon writing for Forbes.[38] Steven Novella has called Natural News “a crank alt med site that promotes every sort of medical nonsense imaginable. If it is unscientific, antiscientific, conspiracy-mongering, or downright silly, Mike Adams appears to be all for it – whatever sells the “natural” products he hawks on his site.”.[39]
Other critics of Adams’ website include astronomer and blogger Phil Plait,[40] PZ Myers,[41] and Brian Dunning, who listed it as #1 on his “Top 10 Worst Anti-Science Websites” list.[42] Adams is listed as a “promoter of questionable methods” by Quackwatch[43] and Robert T. Carroll at The Skeptic’s Dictionary has said, “Natural News is not a very good source for information. If you don’t trust me on this, go to Respectful Insolence or any of the other bloggers on ScienceBlogs and do a search for “Natural News” or “Mike Adams” (who is Natural News). Hundreds of entries will be found and not one of them will have a good word to say about Mike Adams as a source.”[44]
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
