When the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) raised a stink last week about the corporate ties of some appointees to a federal nutrition panel, CSPI’s objections were dutifully reported in many media outlets without a hint of disapproval. This despite the fact that CSPI’s leaders seem willing to overlook scientists’ industry support when it advances their own agenda.
One notable exception was a newspaper serving Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. In an editorial on Tuesday, The News Leader opined:
The trouble with some watchdog organizations is that if you don’t know who built the doghouse they’re living in, you won’t know whether to pay attention when they bark. Such appears to be the case with the Center for Science in the Public Interest … While we don’t want government committees that are so in the back pocket of industry that they declare mayonnaise to be poultry because it contains eggs, we don’t need obviously biased groups like CSPI telling us who’s biased and who isn’t, either.