Tom Bethell (; July 17, 1936 – February 12, 2021) was an American

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

who wrote mainly on

economic An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...

and scientific issues.

Life and career

Bethell was born and raised in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, England. He was educated at

Downside School Downside School is a co-educational Catholic independent boarding and day school in the English public school tradition for pupils aged 11 to 18. It is located between Bath, Frome, Wells and Bruton, and is attached to Downside Abbey. Original ...

and

Trinity College, Oxford (That which you wish to be secret, tell to nobody) , named_for = The Holy Trinity , established = , sister_college = Churchill College, Cambridge , president = Dame Hilary Boulding , location = Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BH , coordinates ...

. A resident of the

District of Columbia ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, he lived in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

, and

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. From 1962 to 1965 he taught math at Woodberry Forest School, Virginia. He was married to Donna R. Fitzpatrick of Washington, D.C. He was a senior editor of ''

The American Spectator ''The American Spectator'' is a conservative American magazine covering news and politics, edited by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. and published by the non-profit American Spectator Foundation. It was founded in 1967 by Tyrrell, who remains its editor- ...

'' and was for 25 years a media fellow of the

Hoover Institution The Hoover Institution (officially The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace; abbreviated as Hoover) is an American public policy think tank and research institution that promotes personal and economic liberty, free enterprise, an ...

. He was Washington editor of '' Harper's'', and an editor of the ''

Washington Monthly ''Washington Monthly'' is a bimonthly, nonprofit magazine of United States politics and government that is based in Washington, D.C. The magazine is known for its annual ranking of American colleges and universities, which serves as an alterna ...

''. In 1980, he received a Gerald Loeb Award Honorable Mention for Columns/Editorial for "Fooling With the Budget."

Jim Garrison investigation

Bethell was hired as a researcher by New Orleans district attorney

Jim Garrison James Carothers Garrison (born Earling Carothers Garrison; November 20, 1921 – October 21, 1992) was the District Attorney of Orleans Parish, Louisiana, from 1962 to 1973. A member of the Democratic Party, he is best known for his investigat ...

to assist with his prosecution of

Clay Shaw Clay LaVergne Shaw (March 17, 1913 – August 15, 1974) was an American businessman and military officer from New Orleans, Louisiana. Shaw is best known for being the only person brought to trial for involvement in the assassination of John F. ...

for conspiracy to assassinate

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

. Bethell gave no credence to Garrison's charges that Shaw was involved. Shaw was acquitted after the jury deliberated for about an hour.

Controversy

In 1976, Bethell wrote a controversial article for ''

Harper’s Magazine ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. (''Scientific American'' is older, b ...

'' titled "Darwin's Mistake". According to Bethell there is no independent criterion of fitness and

natural selection Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Cha ...

is a tautology.Ruse, Michael. ''Philosophy of Biology''. Prometheus Books, 2007, p. 22, 133-141. . Bethell also stated that Darwin's theory was on "the verge of collapse" and natural selection had been "quietly abandoned" by his supporters. Gould, Stephen Jay. "Darwin’s Untimely Burial." ''Natural History'', Vol. 85, 1976, pp. 24-30. Republished in Gould, Stephen Jay. ''Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History''. W. W. Norton & Company, 2007, pp. 39-45. . These claims were disputed by biologists. The paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould wrote a rebuttal to Bethell's arguments. Bethell was a member of the Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV-AIDS Hypothesis, which denies that

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

causes AIDS. In '' The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science'' (2005), he promoted denial of the existence of man-made global warming,

AIDS denialism HIV/AIDS denialism is the belief, despite conclusive evidence to the contrary, that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) does not cause acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Some of its proponents reject the existence of HIV, while oth ...

, and denial of

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

(which Bethell denied was "real science"), promoting

intelligent design Intelligent design (ID) is a pseudoscientific argument for the existence of God, presented by its proponents as "an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins". Numbers 2006, p. 373; " Dcaptured headlines for its bold attempt to ...

instead. Bethell endorsed the intelligent design documentary '' Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed''. Bethell died from complications of

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

at his home in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

in February 2021, aged 84.

Selected publications

Articles
"Darwin's Mistake."
'' Harper's Magazine'', Vol. 252, No. 1509, February 1976, pp. 70-75. *"Against Bilingual Education." ''

'', Vol. 258, February 1979, pp. 30-33. . .
"The Longshoreman Philosopher."
' Hoover Digest'', No. 1, January 2003. Archived fro
the original.
''

'', Vol. 43, No. 4, May 2010. Archived fro

Books
''George Lewis: A Jazzman From New Orleans''.
Berkeley:

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by facult ...

, 1977.
''The Electric Windmill: An Inadvertent Autobiography''.
Washington, D.C.: Regnery Gateway, 1988.
''Noblest Triumph: Property and Prosperity through the Ages''.
New York:

St. Martin's Press St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, in the Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under si ...

, 1998. *'' The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science''. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Press, 2005. *''Questioning Einstein: Is Relativity Necessary?'' Vales Lake Publishing, 2009. *''Eric Hoffer: The Longshoreman Philosopher''. Stanford:

Hoover Institution Press The Hoover Institution (officially The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace; abbreviated as Hoover) is an American public policy think tank and research institution that promotes personal and economic liberty, free enterprise, and ...

, 2012. *''Darwin's House of Cards''. Seattle: Discovery Institute Press, 2017
Audiobook available.
Book contributions
"Mises And Gorbachev: Why Socialism Still Doesn't Work."
pp. 226-230
''The Free Market Reader''
edited by

Lew Rockwell Llewellyn Harrison Rockwell Jr. (born July 1, 1944) is an American author, editor, and political consultant. A libertarian and a self-professed anarcho-capitalist, he founded and is the chairman of the Mises Institute, a non-profit dedicated t ...

. Auburn: The Ludwig von Mises Institute, 1988. .
"Bilingual Education in the Eighties: One Hispanic's Perspective."
pp. 153-162
''American Education: Essays in the Economics of Liberty''
edited by Robert Emmet Long. New York: H. W. Wilson, 1984. .

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bethell, Tom 1936 births 2021 deaths American male journalists Gerald Loeb Award winners for Columns, Commentary, and Editorials HIV/AIDS denialists Intelligent design advocates Relativity critics The American Spectator people Hoover Institution people English emigrants to the United States Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford