March 25, 2021 – One of the leading research magazines in the United States has put its editor-in-chief on administrative vacation pending investigation into a controversial podcast episode that has been criticized as racist.
The American Medical Association’s Joint Oversight Committee announced that Howard Bauchner, MD, will be on vacation from the end of the day. Bauchner is the top editor at JAMA, the AMA magazine.
“The decision to put the editor-in-chief on administrative leave does not imply or exonerate individuals and is the standard practice for such investigations,” the committee said in a statement.
More than 2,000 people have signed a petition on Change.org asking for an investigation from JAMA into the February podcast episode entitled “Structural Racism for Doctors: What is it?”
Edward H. Livingston, MD, the host of the podcast, has already resigned as assistant editor for the magazine.
During the podcast, the white Livingston said, “Structural racism is an unfortunate term. Personally, I think it will help to get racism out of the conversation. Many of us are offended by the concept that we are racist. “
The audio of the podcast has been deleted from the JAMA website. In its place, audio is a statement by Bauchner. In his statement released last week, he said that the comments on the podcast, which also includes Dr. Mitch Katz was represented, “inaccurate, offensive, hurtful and inconsistent with the standards of JAMA”.
A JAMA tweet advertising the podcast episode was also deleted. The tweet reads: “No doctor is racist. So how can structural racism arise in healthcare? An explanation of the idea by doctors for doctors in this easy-to-use podcast. “
This story will be updated.
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