Dragons’ Den star Steven Bartlett under fire for ‘sharing harmful health misinformation’
Dragons’ Den star Steven Bartlett has been criticised for spreading ‘harmful health misinformation’ on his Diary of a CEO podcast.
The 32-year-old has been accused of platforming disproven claims including that cancer can be treated by a keto diet and anti-vaccine conspiracy theories.
A BBC World Service investigation analysed 15 health-related podcasts along with four medical experts and found they contained an average of 14 harmful health claims.
In response, a spokesperson for Bartlett’s production company Flight Studio said each episode was ‘thoroughly researched’, while the guests are afforded ‘freedom of expression.’
‘Diary of a CEO (DOAC) podcast believes that progress, growth and learning comes from hearing a range of voices, not just those Steven and the DOAC team necessarily agree with,’ they added to Metro.
Other disinformation amplified by the podcast found by the BBC includes false claims autism, poly-cystic ovarian syndrome and other conditions can be ‘reversed’ by diet and suggestions evidence-based medication is ‘toxic’ for parents.
In October, cancer researcher Dr Thomas Seyfried claimed on Diary of a CEO a low carbohydrate and high-fat diet could be used to treat cancer, which was disputed by the BBC’s expert cancer research professor David Grimes.
Grimes said: ‘You could potentially and very realistically get very, very, sick and have a much worse health outcome than if you followed recommended advice from your oncologists.’
Diary of a CEO also previously had Aseem Malhotra, a doctor who became known during the pandemic for spreading misinformation about Covid vaccines, as a guest.
On the podcast, Dr Malhotra falsely said the ‘Covid vaccine was a net negative for society.’ Imperial College London previously found that around 20 million deaths worldwide were prevented by the Covid vaccine in its first year alone.
At the end of the episode, Bartlett addressed Dr Malhotra’s misinformation and said he wanted to ‘present some of the other side’ as ‘the truth is usually somewhere in the middle.’
Flight Studio’s full statement said: ‘The Diary Of A CEO (DOAC), is an open-minded, long-form conversation with world leaders, global experts, CEOs, athletes, authors, actors, and other individuals identified for their distinguished and eminent career and/or consequential life experience.
‘Each guest episode is thoroughly researched prior to commission. DOAC offers guests freedom of expression and believes that progress, growth and learning comes from hearing a range of voices not just those Steven and the DOAC team necessarily agree with.
‘The BBC claims to have reviewed 15 specific episodes of nearly 400 published to date. For any reporting of DOAC to focus on less than 4% of episodes with an extremely limited proportion of guests – some of whom have featured on the BBC – to create a broader, and in our opinion, partial narrative is disappointing, misleading and frankly, disingenuous.’
Bartlett launched Diary of a Podcast in 2017 and has interviewed guests including Molly Mae Hague and Lewis Capaldi.
He continued his media domination in 2021 when he started appearing as an investor on BBC One show Dragons’ Den.
This year, Bartlett founded podcast media and technology company Flight Studio.
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