Science

The Path to a Pink Slip

by Sheldon Rampton — January 2, 2007 - 12:35am

As a reporter for Environmental Science and Technology (ES&T), a small industry trade publication, Paul Thacker discovered an entire industry built around spinning science for the purpose of confusing the public while benefiting big business. He wrote exposés documenting the tobacco and oil industry ties of Steven Milloy's junkscience.com, which purports to debunk bad science about issues such as global warming.

Main Source: 
America's Investigative Reports (PBS), November 10, 2006

What Would the Other George Do? An Interview with the Author of "Saving General Washington"

by Judith Siers-Poisson — December 27, 2006 - 11:19am
  • Topics: Arts / Culture, Democracy, Politics, Propaganda, Religion, Science, U.S. Government, War / Peace

    • I spoke with author J.R. Norton in June of this year about his book, Saving General Washington: The Right Wing Assault on America's Founding Principles. The following excerpts are from an interview on "A Public Affair" on WORT (89.9 FM), community radio in Madison, WI, and from a follow up in-person interview.

    JSP: Why do George Washington and the rest of the Founding Fathers need to be saved?

    J.R. Norton: Well, it's a bit of metaphor. It's in part aimed at rehabilitating and reintroducing these founding figures of American history, but on a broader level, on a more important level, it's about reintroducing the values that these guys stood for. Certainly over the last five or six years, I think we've really lost sight of those virtues.

    Medical Journal Pulls Column Critical of Patient Group

    by Bob Burton — December 27, 2006 - 4:29am

    In November, the New England Journal of Medicine pulled an opinion column by Dr. Robert Steinbrook that was critical of ties between the National Kidney Foundation and drug companies.

    Main Source: 
    Wall Street Journal (sub req'd), December 26, 2006

    Newspaper Bias Study Questioned

    by Diane Farsetta — December 22, 2006 - 1:41pm

    After reviewing "two University of Chicago economists' findings about the political slant of American newspapers," reporter Chris Adams concludes that the study "has structural flaws." For instance, the study counted the Washington Post's mentions of "real estate tax" as "estate tax," a phrase identified as Democratic (as opposed to its Republican counterpart, "death tax").

    Main Source: 
    American Journalism Review, December 2006 / January 2007

    A Letter Writer's Imagination

    by Bob Burton — December 14, 2006 - 5:16am

    A doctor who featured in the PR plans of the drug company GlaxoSmithKline has been appointed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to a committee reviewing possible links between anti-depressant drugs and suicidality. In December 2004, internal GlaxoSmithKline documents revealed that Dr.

    Main Source: 
    BioEthics, December 12, 2006

    Government Scientist Pleads Guilty to Accepting Pfizer Fees

    by Bob Burton — December 12, 2006 - 4:33pm

    The chief of the geriatric psychiatry branch of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Pearson Sunderland III, has pleaded guilty to accepting approximately $300,000 in undisclosed fees and expenses from Pfizer between 1997 and 2004. The NIMH is a part of the U.S. government's National Institutes of Health (NIH), which conducts and funds medical research projects.

    Main Source: 
    Baltimore Sun, December 9, 2006

    Important Information Shelved as Federal Libraries Close

    by Diane Farsetta — December 11, 2006 - 3:32pm

    "Across the country, half a dozen federal libraries are closed or closing," including several run by the Environmental Protection Agency.

    Main Source: 
    Los Angeles Times, December 8, 2006

    Was Epidemiologist Doll a Monsanto Puppet?

    by Diane Farsetta — December 11, 2006 - 1:58pm

    "Sir Richard Doll, the celebrated epidemiologist who established that smoking causes lung cancer, was receiving a consultancy fee of $1,500 a day in the mid-1980s from Monsanto," reports The Guardian. "While he was being paid by Monsanto, Sir Richard wrote to a royal Australian commission investigating the potential cancer-causing properties of Agent Orange, made by Monsanto and used by the US in the Vietnam war.

    Main Source: 
    The Guardian (UK), December 8, 2006

    Implant Flacks

    by Bob Burton — November 23, 2006 - 5:55am

    On November 17 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved silicone breast implants manufactured by Mentor Corporation and Allergan. PR Week reports that the PR firm MS&L "began working with Inamed Corp.

    Main Source: 
    PR Week (sub req'd), November 21, 2006

    Tobacco Lobby Aims To Stub Out Safer Cigarettes

    by Bob Burton — November 13, 2006 - 4:43am

    The Tobacco Manufacturers Association (TMA), a U.K.-based trade association, is lobbying against a European Union proposal to require companies to manufacture cigarettes that reduce the chances of causing a fire if not being smoked.

    Main Source: 
    The Observer (UK), November 12, 2006
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