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Originally Posted by Undertoad
So: what's the motivation for a neurologist with a specialty in movement disorders to lie about this or make something up? He puts his reputation on the line for... the sake of a few minutes of local news air time?
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You have it backwards. He is not putting his reputation on the line, he is solidifying his reputation by speaking up in favor of the accepted medical doctrine. To stay silent on the matter, or to say that he can't know for sure what's going on, would be to put his reputation on the line. The doctors doing the unconventional things are the ones putting their reputations on the line; this guy is just trying to throw them under the bus. If he turns out to be wrong, what happens? Nothing, because then practically everyone would have been wrong right along with him.
Edit to add: I don't believe he's lying or making anything up. I believe he's protecting what he's always believed, and what he's built his career on. It wouldn't look very good for "a Medical Advisor for the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation; lead physician at the Parkinson's & Movement Disorders Center of Maryland," etc. to have no understanding of this woman's dystonia. So he insists (and honestly believes) that he does have an understanding of it, one that makes it fit in with what he already believes.