January 13, 2006
Wordsworth
SHNS [Scripps Howard News Service] Friday dropped columnist Michael Fumento of the conservative Hudson Institute for not disclosing he had accepted money from Monsanto in 1999. Fumento wrote in praise of Monsanto as recently as his Jan. 5 column.
… General Manager Peter Copeland of SHNS declined to comment when reached by phone Friday. He did e-mail E&P Online a statement that read:
“Scripps Howard News Service requires writers to disclose any conflict of interest or even an appearance of a conflict in the stories and columns we offer to hundreds of newspapers.
“For three years, we have distributed columns by Michael Fumento, a fellow at the Hudson Institute. On Jan. 5, he wrote about biotechnology and the role of Monsanto. He did not tell SHNS editors, and therefore we did not tell our readers, that in 1999 Hudson received a $60,000 grant from Monsanto. The Hudson Institute said the grant was used to support Fumento’s work on a book he authored about biotechnology.
… “We learned of the grant from Fumento after he responded to questions from Business Week. We immediately suspended his column, investigated and severed our relationship with Fumento. His Jan. 5 column was the last to move on SHNS.”
I believe this is known as corporate journamalism.
Posted by Stephen at 10:01 PM in Business | Media | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
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