In a Friday speech before scores of journalists at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Dobson called it a "scandal" that Americans are being allowed to believe that President Bush's policy restricting the use of federal funds for embryonic stem cell research is impeding progress on cures for diseases such as Alzheimer's.

"Embryonic stem cells are not going to be the source of a cure for Alzheimer's," Dobson told the capacity crowd. "Are you aware that not one human being anywhere in the world is being treated with embryonic stem cells? There is not a single clinical trial going on anywhere in the world, because (embryonic) stem cells in laboratory animals ... create tumors. Nobody will use them."

By comparison, adult stem cells have shown great promise in the treatment of diseases such as diabetes, Dobson explained.

And they do not require the destruction of embryonic human life, since they can be harvested from such sources as umbilical cord blood and bone marrow.

"This needs to be reported to the American people," Dobson said. "They don't know this -- especially when Ron Reagan is all over the place telling everybody that our government won't help fund a cure for Alzheimer's, which his wonderful father had."

Dobson amplified his call for accuracy and fairness today, challenging the media to live up to the principles it has long professed to be guided by.

"There's a plaque at the National Press Club building, just as you come off the elevators, that lays out the 'Journalist's Creed,' written about a hundred years ago by the founder of the University of Missouri's journalism school, " Dobson noted. "It says, in part, that 'the public journal is a public trust; that all connected to it are, to the full measure of responsibility, trustees for the public; that acceptance of lesser service than the public service is a betrayal of this trust.'

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