According to Paul D. Thacker's piece, posted today on The New Republic's web site, Fox science columnist Steven Milloy has been outed as a shill for big business. Specifically:
As revealed in Mother Jones last spring, between 2000 and 2003, ExxonMobil donated $90,000 to two nonprofits Milloy operates out of his house in Potomac, Maryland. [emph. added]This might explain why he listed a global warming study on his list "the top 10 junk science claims of 2005."
Thacker goes on to list another write-for-pay arrangement that Milloy has made (note that "Milloy has been affiliated with FoxNews.com since July 2000"):
According to Lisa Gonzalez, manager of external communications for Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris, Milloy was under contract there through the end of last year. . . . Although she couldn't comment on fees paid to Milloy, a January 2001 Philip Morris budget report lists Milloy as a consultant and shows that he was budgeted for $92,500 in fees and expenses in both 2000 and 2001.During this time, Milloy did a couple of pieces, for Fox News, debunking research on the dangers of secondhand smoke.
Here's the kicker: Thacker mentions several other shills who have recently been outed, and the resulting relationship with said shills' employers. In summary:
The Shill: Armstrong Williams
- The Shill's Actions: Took a government contract to write columns favorable to Bush's No Child Left Behind Act
- The Shill's Employer and its Reaction: Tribune Media Services fired Williams
The Shill: Doug Bandow
- The Shill's Actions: Took money from Jack Abramoff to write columns favorable to the Republican lobbyist's clients
- The Shill's Employer and its Reaction: Copley News Service fired Bandow
The Shill: Michael Fumento
- The Shill's Actions: Took $60,000 from Monsanto, one of the biotech companies he later covered in his columns
- The Shill's Employer and its Reaction: Scripps Howard fired Fumento and apologized to its readers
The Shill: Steven Milloy
- The Shill's Actions: Took money from ExxonMobil and dissed a global warming study, took money from Philip Morris and dissed secondhand smoke studies
- The Shill's Employer and its Reaction: Fox News continues to deny any knowledge of Milloy's connections
The whole story is posted on TNR's site, but you may have to jump through some hoops to read it. Let me know if you want me to email you the text, instead.
1 comment:
I don't suppose you have heard Steven Milloy's reaction to yesterday's AP story, have you? You know, the one reporting that the California Air Resources Board had voted unanimously to declare secondhand smoke a toxic air pollutant? Putting it "in the
same category as diesel exhaust, arsenic and benzene?"
No?
I didn't think so.
He's probably still sitting in his Ronald Reagan jammies (complete with drool bib), muttering about the vast left-wing conspiracy.
Or waiting for Altria's latest check to clear.
The NYTimes has a copy of the AP story here, or you could just Google something like "California secondhand smoke."
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