PhuckD.

The absence of Twitter for three days whilst abroad last weekend finally ended as I touched down on the grim tarmac at London's very own Aldi of airports, Stansted. I'm so glad I chose that moment to load Tweetdeck, as I felt genuinely pleased to catch the first rumbles of what would become a massive PR storm, complete in a popular social broadcasting teacup.

After a fairly innocuous comment from a relative unknown regarding their anticipation of watching the new Bad Science episode featuring Gillian "That Awful Poo Lady" McKeith, she was subjected to no less than 4 (unanswered) attacks by McKeith after she took offence the 'no PhD' remark at the end of the original tweet.


Cue the Twitter bandwagon phenomenon and hey presto, #gillianmckeithhasnophd is trending. Now, this is where it gets interesting.

Unable to deal with the subject gracefully, McKeith has been backpedalling furiously (must be the alfalfa) and resorting to anything to try and make this ugly mess go away. Except for retraction, of course. Starting to make herself come across as slightly unhinged, Gillian has begun to make comments in the third person and even tried to deny owning the profile. It's all very embarrassing really, especially as pedestrians like this bright spark have managed to screengrab evidence of the page being official. She's also blocking anyone who mentions the infamous PhD, including Ben Goldacre, author of Bad Science, referring to him as an 'ass' and 'liar'.

Unfortunately, McKeith's eagerness to defend her PhD has only shed more light on the dubious nature of her doctorate, which was bought from a non-accredited U.S. college. In fact, Goldacre even managed to buy the same degree for $60. For his cat. Which is dead.


I don't know about you, but I felt comfortable with making a judgement call on Gillian before this event even occurred. Oh well, poo-gate rolls on.