"Dr. A. Dean Byrd, Chair of NARTH's Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC), raised his hand to question Dr. Koocher about the serious charges leveled at the APA in the recent book Destructive Trends in Mental Health, edited by Drs. Wright and Cummings, longtime prominent members of APA.
Dr. Byrd noted that in a symposium earlier that day, Dr. Nicholas Cummings, Dr. Bonnie Strickland and Dr. Frank Farley (all former APA presidents) had raised serious concerns about APA's misrepresentation of science to the American public. They had specifically focused on the "corrosive effects of the socio-political ideologies" in the APA, the "liberal biases" in the APA, and had characterized the organization "a politically correct profession, with crowd control by the thought police."
Dr. Koocher elected not to respond to the issues raised in the Wright and Cummings book, but rather chose to focus on the publisher--dismissing the book as having been produced by a "vanity press..."
It's no surprise that Koocher elected not to respond to the charges of "liberal biases" in the APA. These charges have been ignored for years, as documented here and here. In the first reference, you'll note that these charges were made by APA members in APA publications, not some "vanity press."
See also:
Minnesota Psychologist Taken to Task for Saying Homosexuals Can Change.
No doubt! The book Destructive Trends in Mental Health is quite revealing, and it's written by liberal members of the APA.