A Columnist Backed by Monsanto
This is so important to remember when a popular and influential pundit is praising a cause or pushing an agenda. The words you read may be backed up by thousands of dollars in kickbacks from whatever cause or agenda is being shoved on the populace.
Monsanto, the father of Genetically Altered Frankenfood, has hired this writer to push the agenda of GM foods. (This is a link to Fumentos “Boo Hoo Hoo, Can’t we all get along piece at NRO – good work Cathy in helping to expose his fraud!)
Quote:
In a statement released on Jan. 13, Scripps Howard News Service Editor and General Manager Peter Copeland said Fumento “did not tell SHNS editors, and therefore we did not tell our readers, that in 1999 Hudson recieved a $60,000 grant from Monsanto.” Copeland added: “Our policy is that he should have disclosed that information. We apologize to our readers.” In the Jan. 5 column, Fumento wrote that St. Louis-based Monsanto has about 30 products in the pipeline that will aid farmers, “but also help us all by keeping prices down and allowing more crops to be grown on less land.”
He listed some of the products Monsanto has on tap: drought-resistant corn, crops that could reduce the need for environment-damaging fertilizers, and soybeans that might reduce heart disease.
“YOU SHOULD CONTRIBUTE.” In his career at Hudson, Fumento has carved out a specialty debunking critics of the agribusiness and biotechnology industries.”
No free speech for anyone but the Corporate shill…
“In 1999, he says, he solicited $60,000 from Monsanto to write a book on the business. The book, entitled BioEvolution was published in 2003. A spokesman for Monsanto confirmed the payments to the Hudson Institute.
Asked about the payments, Fumento says, “I’m just extremely pro-biotech.”
Fumento insists that disclosure of financial transactions between op-ed columnists and the companies they cover wouldn’t be practical. “The op-ed money trail is only now getting attention, he argues in an e-mail, because of BusinessWeek Online’s recent revelation that Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff had paid two columnists for years to deliver good press to his clients.”
So the question in my mind is….HOW PERVASIVE IS THIS PRACTICE??? And can we trust anything that any editorialist says??? How long is the op-ed MONEY TRAIL???
“Fumento also points out that he criticized Monsanto publicly in a 1999 Forbes magazine column, calling the company “chicken-hearted” for caving in to pressure from environmentalists to terminate a seed program. “I acted completely ethically, and within a month or two nobody will doubt that,” Fumento says.”
Puuleease…calling Monsanto “chicken hearted” towards environmentalists works completely in their favor, and shows no signs of ethics or bravado against his employer. This “chicken-hearted” claim justifys Monsanto in their monopolizing and bullying in the food industries and enables them to more fully go after critics.
“While Fumento doesn’t think he should have disclosed the payments to his readers, Hudson’s CEO Kenneth R. Weinstein is less sure. Asked if the scholar should have disclosed his financial relationship with Monsanto, Weinstein pauses and says, “that’s a good question, period.””
All disclosures should be made public. Perhaps each editorial should have a disclaimer at the beginning of it saying something like – Company XYZ paid me $40,000.00 over the past three years to shill for their goods and services…(hey, it’s cheaper than advertising!)”
Here’s hoping….
Let Freedom Ring!
Jenny Hatch
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