Fact Check

Brainless Surgeon

Published Oct. 15, 2015

Claim:

[green-label]Claim[/green-label]:   Ben Carson's medical license was revoked due to his making a series of "brainless" comments.

[dot-false]False[/dot-false]

[green-label]Example:[/green-label] [green-small][Collected via e-mail, October 2015][/green-small]

Is this true? Ben Carson Loses Brain Surgeon License After Making Numerous Brainless Comments

His personal comments on the subjects that were stated for the reasons all 50 states revoked his license do not seem legit and ALL 50 states revoking his license at the same time and making a joint statement as to why.

[green-label]Origins:[/green-label]   On 14 October 2015, the web site Huffington Post published an article reporting that Dr. Ben Carson, a former neurosurgeon and current Republican presidential candidate, had seen his medical license revoked due to his having made several "brainless" comments:

The Medical Boards for all 50 States in the Union announced today that they have revoked Ben Carson's medical license and will no longer allow him to operate as a brain surgeon anywhere in the U.S. And they cited as their reason Carson's mental and intellectual challenges — otherwise known as the propensity to sound like a total and utter nutcase.

In a joint statement, the Medical Boards said: We have been increasingly concerned about the gibberish emanating from Mr. Carson's cerebrum. We cite by way of example his belief that the holocaust could have been prevented by armed German citizens, that straight people go into prison and come out gay, and that Obamacare is the worse thing to happen to the country since slavery.

We are therefore suspending his medical license in any state where he is qualified to practice. And should he choose to come out of retirement and re-apply for credentials, we will not allow him to operate on people's cerebrums, or indeed cerebullums, limbic systems and brain stems, until he can demonstrate that his own are in fully working order."

Given that the Huffington Post is known to readers primarily as a news and entertainment outlet and not a satirical or fake news site, many readers mistook their "Ben Carson Loses Brain Surgeon License" article for a genuine piece of news reporting and not as a satirical political commentary (as indicated by its being tagged as "political humor," "comedy," and "satire"). However, the article was published in the Huffington Post's "comedy" section and was not meant to be taken literally.

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[green-label]Last updated:[/green-label] 15 October 2015

[green-label]Originally published:[/green-label] 15 October 2015

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.