Newsweek and USA Today Need Standards for Opinion Writers
Please ask Newsweek and USA Today to strengthen their conflict-of-interest standards for opinion writers.
Stacy Malkan
Reuters vs. UN Cancer Agency: Are Corporate Ties Influencing Science Coverage?
Ever since they classified a widely used herbicide as “probably carcinogenic,” scientists at the UN’s cancer research group have been under attack by the agrichemical industry. One key weapon in industry’s arsenal has been the reporting of Kate Kelland, a veteran Reuters reporter.
Coke Adds Lies: Media Sources Paid to Downplay Soda’s Dangers
Journalists unmasked a scheme that should look familiar to anyone following health and environmental news: corporations paying front groups and scientists to spin the media and public in order to protect their products.
Washington Post’s Food Columnist Goes to Bat for Monsanto–Again
Washington Post food columnist Tamar Haspel offered an investigation (“the surprising truth”) about the food movement—without speaking to anyone in the food movement—concluding that there isn’t much of a food movement after all.
Media Take Diet Advice From Coke-Funded Academics
Journalists unmasked a scheme that should look familiar to anyone following health and environmental news: corporations paying front groups and scientists to spin the media and public in order to protect their products.
Pro-GMO Washington Post Columnist Moonlights for Agrichemical Money
As it a conflict of interest for columnists to make money on the side from industries they cover? The question arose from documents obtained via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed by my group US Right to Know, a nonprofit that promotes transparency in the food system. Investigating ties between agrichemical companies, their PR […]
Buckraking on the Food Beat: When Is It a Conflict of Interest?
In an age of shrinking newspaper budgets, it’s common for editors to rely on freelance writers–and for freelancers to add to their incomes with side projects. But is it a conflict of interest for a columnist who covers food and agriculture to take money from agrichemical industry interest groups? The issue arose in a September […]
