Headlines (page399)

Thirty years ago, student newspapers were filled with warnings against racism and Vietnam. Today, the University of Texas-Arlington school paper is going out of its way (and out of the bounds of reality) to warn students that the restaurant foods they like to eat are killing them.

New research finds that chocolate can help prevent clogged arteries. As if on cue, the Center for Science in the Public Interest's Michael Jacobson, known for baselessly raving against anything that tastes good, blasts promotion of the newfound benefits.

ABC's 20/20 news magazine recycled a false CSPI claim that teen boys consume three cans of soda a day. Although CSPI retracted their 100% overstated statistic back in 1998, ABC joined many other media organizations who used the nannies' more dramatic - and utterly false - statistic.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest's (CSPI) media campaign against sugar surfaced once again in a "breaking" story linking sugar and tooth decay. CSPI has been railing against sugar in an attempt to get the Federal government to impose labels on products with added sugar.

Ban "corporate" farming? Close "factory farms"? Produce food only for local consumption? In their ongoing campaign against the modern agricultural methods that allow the United States to feed the world, the nannies from the Turning Point Project advocate these and other absurd proposals in a full-page ad in today's New York Times.

Gordon Conway, chief of the Rockefeller Foundation and considered to be the man who spearheaded the choice-limiting sustainability movement 30 years ago, enjoys the kid-glove treatment from Fortune magazine in a major interview. Conway's a leading advocate of labeling GE foods despite industry concerns it will only instill unfounded public fear. "Industry will get dragged, kicking and screaming into labeling," he predicts as his foundation spends $3 million to make sure it happens.

With help from the anti-industrial agriculture movement, professor Steven Wing has produced a highly questionable study claiming that industrial hog farms reduce the quality of life for people living near them and tend to affect their health. Following standard operating procedure for nannies, Wing offers no medical evidence to back his conclusions.

Malcolm Walker's "Iceland" English supermarket chain is marking "salt awareness day" today with a press release stating they have removed some salt from their food products. Walker is a major funder and member of Greenpeace, whose steady stream of junk science has helped instill unfounded fear in the public. Is it possible that "Iceland" supermarkets are marketing a fear of salt, which, in turn, they hope to profit from, rather than providing a useful public service?

Christian Science Monitor column Marilyn Gardner ponders our 1999 Nanny Awards as a way to examine those groups and individuals who would "protect us from ourselves."

The Georgetown University newspaper is featuring a story on the "dangers and effects of the most accessible drug," none other than caffeine. Typical of a nanny-inspired story, it is full of unsubstantiated charges and devoid of scientific fact.