Hoxsey and Cancer
Kevin Thomas’ Sept. 29 review of the documentary “Hoxsey: Quacks Who Cure Cancer?” says, “He (Hoxsey) and the American Medical Assn. represented by Dr. Morris Fishbein, editor of its prestigious journal, battled for some 35 years, culminating in Hoxsey’s successful libel suit against Fishbein.”
There is more to the truth than that. For one thing, the suit also was against W.R. Hearst Jr., the American Weekly, Hearst Consolidated Publications, the American Medical Assn. and William Engle.
For another, you have to wonder just how successful that libel suit really was. My father’s autobiography says the suit “ended with Hoxsey being awarded $1 in damages because of an allegation that his father also had been a quack.”
My feeling is that the use of partial truths is not the best way to support the movie’s position.
JUSTIN M. FISHBEIN
Northridge
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