ags1824
12-06-2005, 11:50 AM
MEDIA BREAK RULES FOR GREEN GROUPS
BY MICHAEL FUMENTO
Scripps Howard News Service, December 1, 2005
"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." But how about "Fool me always?" That's the mainstream media's relationship with self-styled "environmental" and "consumer" activist groups. And you wonder to what extent the media are being fooled – as opposed to simply repeating what they want to believe.
A current and classic incident involves the Environmental Working Group...
Using allegedly "covered up" studies and a valiant "whistleblower" named Glenn Evers, EWG is accusing DuPont of hiding the health dangers of a member of the Teflon family called Zonyl. The chemical prevents food grease from penetrating wrappers and cardboard and staining your clothes.
"ABC News has learned that the Food and Drug Administration has opened an investigation into its safety," declared the network's Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross on Good Morning America. The reason, he said, is a 1987 memo EWG obtained showing that [a type of Zonyl] was migrating into food at a rate "three times what the FDA allowed."
Sure enough, on EWG's website there's a link: "1987 DuPont Internal memo showing Zonyl over 3 times the FDA limit. But the single-page document makes no reference to FDA. Perhaps that's because there is no FDA standard for Zonyl or other so-called "extractable" chemicals. EWG's claim is fabricated.
Ross also told viewers: "A former DuPont senior engineer [Evers] alleges the company long failed to disclose all it knew about the chemical," but that "uncovered internal DuPont documents" had been forwarded to the FDA.
Yet FDA official George Pauli told Bloomberg Press that DuPont was under no obligation to provide the FDA with those documents; indeed, the agency didn't ask for the documents because it's so busy that only materials considered important are required...
Numerous other outlets including the Associated Press, CBS News and Fox News also repeated the EWG allegations about exceeding FDA standards and a DuPont cover-up. They weren't fair and balanced and they issued no corrections. At least one state-based "citizen action" group announced a boycott of numerous packaged food products, relying not on EWG directly but rather the AP story.
Yet Bloomberg called both DuPont and the FDA, producing a relatively accurate piece. Fairness and accuracy are not the impossible dream.
Click here for the full article. (http://www.fumento.com/fda/zonyl.html)
BY MICHAEL FUMENTO
Scripps Howard News Service, December 1, 2005
"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." But how about "Fool me always?" That's the mainstream media's relationship with self-styled "environmental" and "consumer" activist groups. And you wonder to what extent the media are being fooled – as opposed to simply repeating what they want to believe.
A current and classic incident involves the Environmental Working Group...
Using allegedly "covered up" studies and a valiant "whistleblower" named Glenn Evers, EWG is accusing DuPont of hiding the health dangers of a member of the Teflon family called Zonyl. The chemical prevents food grease from penetrating wrappers and cardboard and staining your clothes.
"ABC News has learned that the Food and Drug Administration has opened an investigation into its safety," declared the network's Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross on Good Morning America. The reason, he said, is a 1987 memo EWG obtained showing that [a type of Zonyl] was migrating into food at a rate "three times what the FDA allowed."
Sure enough, on EWG's website there's a link: "1987 DuPont Internal memo showing Zonyl over 3 times the FDA limit. But the single-page document makes no reference to FDA. Perhaps that's because there is no FDA standard for Zonyl or other so-called "extractable" chemicals. EWG's claim is fabricated.
Ross also told viewers: "A former DuPont senior engineer [Evers] alleges the company long failed to disclose all it knew about the chemical," but that "uncovered internal DuPont documents" had been forwarded to the FDA.
Yet FDA official George Pauli told Bloomberg Press that DuPont was under no obligation to provide the FDA with those documents; indeed, the agency didn't ask for the documents because it's so busy that only materials considered important are required...
Numerous other outlets including the Associated Press, CBS News and Fox News also repeated the EWG allegations about exceeding FDA standards and a DuPont cover-up. They weren't fair and balanced and they issued no corrections. At least one state-based "citizen action" group announced a boycott of numerous packaged food products, relying not on EWG directly but rather the AP story.
Yet Bloomberg called both DuPont and the FDA, producing a relatively accurate piece. Fairness and accuracy are not the impossible dream.
Click here for the full article. (http://www.fumento.com/fda/zonyl.html)