Monday, October 03, 2005
The Fox BGH Scandal
BGH is an artificial hormone many dairymen inject in cows to get greater milk yields. A number of scientists, including Samuel Epstein, M.D., have linked the consumption of BGH milk to breast and colon cancer. BGH is not permitted in Europe and has not been approved in Canada.
Fox news reporter Jane Akre and her husband Steve Wilson produced an expose to run on Fox13 in Florida. Because of threats from Monsanto (which sells BGH under the name Posilac) , Fox refused to air the report and eventually fired Akre and Wilson. (Monsanto buys millions of dollars of advertising from Fox.) Instead Fox ran a watered down version of the story that supported Monsanto's claims that BGH causes no harm. Under Whistle Blowing legislation in Florida Akre and Wilson sued Fox and won. Their case was later overturned on appeal.
Wilson had tried to persaude the Fox manager to run the story appealing to his basic sense of why the story was news. The manager, a former salesman, responded, "Don't tell me what news is. We paid $2 billion for these television stations and the news is what we say it is. We'll tell you what the news is." (See Jeffrey M. Smith. 2003. Seeds of Deception. Fairfield, Iowa: Yes Books. pp. 183-193; also www. foxBGHsuit.com.)
Fox news reporter Jane Akre and her husband Steve Wilson produced an expose to run on Fox13 in Florida. Because of threats from Monsanto (which sells BGH under the name Posilac) , Fox refused to air the report and eventually fired Akre and Wilson. (Monsanto buys millions of dollars of advertising from Fox.) Instead Fox ran a watered down version of the story that supported Monsanto's claims that BGH causes no harm. Under Whistle Blowing legislation in Florida Akre and Wilson sued Fox and won. Their case was later overturned on appeal.
Wilson had tried to persaude the Fox manager to run the story appealing to his basic sense of why the story was news. The manager, a former salesman, responded, "Don't tell me what news is. We paid $2 billion for these television stations and the news is what we say it is. We'll tell you what the news is." (See Jeffrey M. Smith. 2003. Seeds of Deception. Fairfield, Iowa: Yes Books. pp. 183-193; also www. foxBGHsuit.com.)
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
