A free excerpt of Three Chapters from Truth to Power

Three Chapters from Truth to Power, the 466- page book available now on Amazon.

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Truth to Power

New York Native 1980-1997
Available at Amazon in every country.

“Charles Ortleb, as editor-in-chief and publisher of the New York Native, was and remains the Izzy Stone of science reporting.  He was fearless in his pursuit of the origins of the AIDS epidemic and the government’s response in the 1980s.  When his newspaper began to diverge from the dogmatic mainstream, however, he was ostracized by the very people he was seeking to inform.  In addition, his laser-like focus in the Native on the simultaneous emergence of so-called “chronic fatigue syndrome”—a topic to which he assigned a full-time reporter, Neenyah Ostrom—was laudable.  These disorders remain too much alike to arbitrarily submerge one in favor of the other, as the government has done without blinking for thirty years.  Ortleb took considerable risks to profitability by pursuing every avenue of investigation on these matters.  Yet, as much as Ortleb was criticized, the Native was also a “must read” of its time.  When I was reporting my own book on the latter disease, I frequently spied the Native on the desks of high level scientists at the National Institutes of Health.  As much as he made them uncomfortable, everyone in the AIDS research establishment wanted to know what Ortleb was going to report next.  Ortleb’s caustic humor and piercing analysis of what he has dubbed “political epidemiology,” and “homodemiology” by the Centers for Disease Control alone makes Truth to Power worth the read.  But the history he recounts here is crucial reading for anyone who missed the Native in its heyday or who didn’t “get it” the first time around.  Given the recent rise of infectious disease alarms around the world, Truth to Power is, additionally, remarkably timely for those who seek to understand what drives the American public health establishment in times of crises. A rollicking, fascinating and important memoir.”

        —Hillary Johnson, author of Osler's Web, Inside the Labyrinth of the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Epidemic

“Charles Ortleb and the New York Native which he so brilliantly led was the absolutely indispensable source for all information—medical, political, personal—in the first five years of the AIDS epidemic when the major media in this country as well as the medical establishment tried so hard to avoid the topic.  Not since I.F.Stone have we seen how important individual investigative journalism could be in breaking through society’s silence, when silence indeed equaled death.  It is good to finally have the Native’s heroic work put on the historical record for all to see.”

       —Michael Denneny, author of Decent Passions and Lovers: The Story of Two Men

"The gay press—with the exception of the New York Native, which deserves a Pulitzer Prize for its comprehensive coverage [of AIDS]—hasn’t been much better than the straight press."

 —David Black, Rolling Stone, April 25, 1985

“Because of the extraordinary reporting of the New York Native, the city’s gay community had been exposed to far more information about AIDS than San Francisco in 1981 and 1982.”

       —Randy Shilts, And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic

“It is undeniable that many major AIDS stories were Ortleb’s months and sometimes years before mainstream journalists took them up.”

       —Katie Leishman, Rolling Stone, March 23, 1989

By the time you finish this eye-opening book you will question everything you have been told about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and AIDS. In this powerfully written history you will find credible and disturbing evidence linking the two epidemics to one virus, HHV-6. You will wonder if HHV-6 is the real AIDS/CFS virus and whether the HIV theory of AIDS is one of the biggest mistakes ever made in medical science. This book will inspire an international debate about HHV-6 and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

*Truth to Power exposes the corrupt world of AIDS and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome research.

*Truth to Power reveals how the Centers for Disease Control has covered up a massive epidemic of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and HHV-6, the virus that clearly is what is destroying the immune systems of CFS patients.

*Truth to Power explains why HHV-6 has become the biggest public health problem in the world.

*Truth to Power reveals how HHV-6 may threaten your health and the health of your family and friends.

*Truth to Power uncovers the terrifying possibility that the virus HHV-6 is also infecting the pets of people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

*Truth to Power presents compelling evidence that HHV-6 originated in pigs.

*Truth to Power shows you how political American science has become and why so many honest whistleblowers have been silenced.

Charles Ortleb’s Truth to Power takes you inside the New York Native, one of the most unique and consequential newspapers of the twentieth century. Shortly after starting his small gay New York City newspaper in late 1980, one of the biggest scientific and political stories of our time fell into his lap in the form of the AIDS and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome epidemic. What he did with that story has secured his newspaper’s place in history. Under his guidance, a succession of intrepid journalists did some of their greatest work uncovering the crucial facts about the labyrinthine epidemic.

Ortleb made the decision to follow the facts wherever they led. Charles Ortleb’s Truth to Power takes you inside the New York Native, one of the most unique and consequential newspapers of the twentieth century. Shortly after starting his small gay New York City newspaper in late 1980, one of the biggest scientific and political stories of our time fell into his lap in the form of the AIDS and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome epidemic. What he did with that story has secured his newspaper’s place in history. Under his guidance, a succession of intrepid journalists did some of their greatest work uncovering the crucial facts about the labyrinthine epidemic.

Ortleb made the decision to follow the facts wherever they led. As a result of the New York Native’s uncompromising investigative reporting, many powerful toes were stepped on. For years the medical and political establishment did everything they could to discredit New York Native and put it out of business. But Ortleb stood his ground for as long as possible and as a result the world now can have a clear understanding of the relationship of AIDS, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and HHV-6, the transmissible virus that now threatens everyone on this planet.

Anyone who has wondered why the medical establishment will not tell the truth about the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome epidemic will find the disturbing answer in Truth to Power.

What makes Ortleb so unusual is that not only did he have the natural instincts of a journalist, editor and publisher, but he was also a poet, a fiction writer and a budding political philosopher. Truth to Power is not just a compelling work of journalism and history, but also a major contribution to the intellectual life of our time.

Truth to Power is a 466-page book published by Rubicon Media.

Truth to Power is available on Amazon in both print and Kindle formats.  Also Kindle Unlimited.

The TRUTH TO POWER music video.