tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13419760.post5251473596291685563..comments2024-02-23T02:18:11.366-08:00Comments on The Liberal Doomsayer: Fumento’s Fractious Pandemic Prognosticationdoomsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06398846941235150923noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13419760.post-90728927689195531222009-07-17T13:05:44.869-07:002009-07-17T13:05:44.869-07:00As you know, you approached Monsanto to write a bo...As you know, you approached Monsanto to write a book about them, which is fine, but Scripps Howard dropped you because the nature of your business relationship with Monsanto was exposed by Business Week Online. That was pointed out by Howard Kurtz in the Washington Post in January 2006, besides a Wikipedia citation. I don't know how else to respond to that remark about Monsanto knowing you would write a Scripps Howard column.<br /><br />My point is that you have a history of taking positions against matters of public health versus any real or perceived costs to businesses that may be impacted by those costs to one degree or another. And I personally never alleged that drug companies were paying you off for saying so.<br /><br />By the way, I just found an LA Times story dated today pointing out that swine flu "is spreading faster than ever," to the point where some school districts are concerned about starting classes again this fall (the story states that "experts believe that more than a million Americans have been infected"). Given this, how you can consider pandemic preparedness to be "bizarre" is something I cannot fathom.doomsyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06398846941235150923noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13419760.post-88007893685664484382009-07-16T08:09:27.952-07:002009-07-16T08:09:27.952-07:00Ah! The Monsanto hit job again, courtesy of Wikipe...Ah! The Monsanto hit job again, courtesy of Wikipedia!<br /><br />Facts: In 1999 I received a one-year book grant from Monsanto. In mid-2003 I began a column with Scripps Howard. Very prescient of Monsanto to know I'd get that column four years later!<br /><br />Of the approximately 130 columns I wrote for Scripps, two were about Monsanto even though my big issue at the time was agbiotech and Monsanto is the 300-lb. gorilla of agbiotech.<br /><br />Meanwhile, back in 1999, shortly after receiving the grant, I RIPPED Monsanto in a Forbes magazine article.<br /><br />I'm afraid the ad hominens just don't work with me. Oh, and by the way, who is going to pay me to say that flu outbreaks are exaggerated? The drug companies? Hah! I'm virtually always on the WRONG side of the money.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16908733379542980980noreply@blogger.com