define hypocrisy please?

Journalist and author Simon Singh is being sued by the British Chiropractic Association (BCA) over allegations that he made libelous statements in article he wrote for the Guardian newspaper. His statements referred to BCA claims about chiropractic benefits to pediatric disorders amongst others (asthma etc.). Singh maintains there is no evidence for them to be making such claims, and that furthermore it seems inherently dangerous and negligent to be manipulating the spine of a young child who is still growing. This latter would seem to be common sense to me...but what do I know. I'm just a scientist.

Anyway, an English judge ruled against Singh in a pretrial hearing saying that he had made defamatory statements. English libel law is a fucking joke to the rest of the sane world, and one hopes that this added attention and the 4000+ signatory petition being sent to MPs will help the government and the "legislature" try and address the issue.

In response to Singh's article the BCA, as I mentioned, sued him. They didn't present their case with peer-reviewed scientific literature and clinical studies. In the face of claims of being unscientific, they acted unscientifically. Surprise surprise. There is fuck all evidence for their claims, but of course, now they have proverbial egg on their faces. They can't back-down and admit they're wrong (or indeed, charlatans and snake oil salesmen), so they sue. Thankfully (for someone) Singh is wealthy enough to fight back. Poor fucker, to be. The BCA by acting so utterly deplorably have likely ruined the financial future of Singh and his family. I can't understand why a supposedly "service body" would do something so inherently...so...fucking dickish.

The BCA have now entered the media fray with a statement saying the libel-suit was a last resort. Fucking bollocks, as Singh explains in his article for Sense-about-science; the Guardian offered them a 500 page piece to put their counter argument forward. They also now attack science, science-communicators and writers,

"The brief statement notes that “to stifle scientific debate would clearly be wrong,” but that “scientists must realise that they cannot simply publish with impunity what they know to be untrue and libellous.”"

Go. Fuck. Yourselves. The nature of scientific debate is attacked by this selfish, childish bullshit.