Thanks Vera for contributing this, this is incredible!
-----Original Message-----
From: Vera M. Britto <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: STUDIES IN WOMEN AND ENVIRONMENT <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Sunday, April 05, 1998 11:22 AM
Subject: Milk hormone - Reporters told to lie to public
>Just came across this...
>
>For Thursday, April 2, 1998
>
>For further information:
> Jane Akre or Steve Wilson (813) 789-8768
> John Chamblee, ReportersU Attorney (813) 251-4542
> Mark Ferrulo, FL PIRG (850) 224-3321
> M.J. Williamson, Florida Consumer Action Network (813) 286-1226
>
> Full details of suit and BGH story available at
>http://www.foxBGHsuit.com in Tallahassee and Tampa.
>
> Reporters Blow Whistle On News Station
>
> FLORIDA MILK SUPPLY RIDDLED WITH
> ARTIFICIAL HORMONE LINKED TO
> CANCER; REPORTERS SAY THEY WERE
> ORDERED TO LIE ABOUT IT ON FOX-TV
>
> TAMPA- Two award-winning investigative reporters at the Fox-owned
>television station in Tampa are blowing the whistle on a
>story they say WTVT (Ch 13) and its corporate bosses preferred to coverup
> rather than broadcast honestly and accurately.
>
> The story, documented in a lawsuit the reporters filed Thursday,
>reveals the widespread use of a
> controversial bovine growth hormone Florida dairymen have been
>secretly injecting into their cows.
>
>
> The suit and information about use of the hormone in dairy cattle are
>presented in full detail at a special Internet web site.
>The site can be viewed at
>http://www.foxBGHsuit.com
>
> Though legal since approved by the U.S.
>Food and Drug Administration in 1993, the artificial hormone
> commonly known as BGH has been linked to cancer and is banned
>throughout Europe and unapproved in
> several other countries because of human health concerns.
>
>The never-broadcast report also reveals how Florida supermarkets quietly
>reneged on promises not to
> sell milk from treated cows until the hormone gained widespread
>acceptance by consumers. All major
> supermarkets now admit BGH has found its way into virtually all the
>state's milk supply.
>
> The husband-and-wife investigative team joined with Florida's top
>consumer groups--the Florida Public
> Interest Research Group and the Consumer Action Network--to reveal the
>BGH story at news conferences
> Thursday in Tallahassee and Tampa.
>
>The reporters also provided details of their suit which charges Fox
>television, strongly pressured
> by BGH-maker Monsanto, with violating the stateUs whistleblower act by
>firing the journalists for
> refusing to broadcast false reports and threatening to report the
>stationUs conduct to the FCC.
> Their complaint also claims the station violated the reportersU
>contracts in dismissing them for
> those reasons and it seeks a ruling from the court to determine to
>what extent the reporters'
> contractual obligations limit their ability to speak freely about the
>rBGH issue.
>
> The journalists filed the suit after struggling with Fox executives
>most of last year to get the
> story on the air. According to court papers, they were ultimately
>dismissed December 2, 1997.
>
> "Every editor has the right to kill a story and any honest reporter
>will tell you that happens from
> time to time when a news organization's self interest wins out over
>the public interest," said Steve
> Wilson, the station's former senior investigative reporter who helped
>Akre produce the story and is
> now one of the plaintiffs.
>
> "But when media managers who are not journalists have so little regard
>for the public trust that
>they actually order reporters to broadcast false information and slant the
>truth to curry the favor or
>avoid the wrath of special interests as happened here, that is the day any
>responsible reporter has to
>stand up and say, "No way!" That is what Jane and I are saying with this
>lawsuit," Wilson said.
>
>"We are parents ourselves," Akre said. "It is not right for the station to
>withhold this important health
>information and solely as a matter of conscience we will not aid and abet
>their effort to cover this up
>any longer," she said. "Every parent and every consumer have the right to
>know what they're pouring on
>their children's morning cereal."
>
>"We set out to tell Florida consumers the truth a giant chemical company
>and a powerful dairy lobby
>clearly doesn't want them to know," Wilson said. "That used to be
>something investigative reporters won
>awards for. As we've learned the hard way, it's something you can be fired
>for these days whenever a news
>organization places more value on its bottom line than on delivering the
>news to its viewers honestly.
>
>"We filed this lawsuit because itUs wrong to lose your job as a journalist
>for standing up for the truth,"
>Akre added. "We have every confidence that a jury will agree. And when it
>does, after we're reimbursed for
>our lost salaries and legal fees and other costs, every nickel over and
>above that will be donated to a
>journalism organization that can support the next journalist who has to
>choose between his job and telling
>the truth."
>
>According to the suit, WTVT originally reviewed the investigative reports
>and scheduled them to air in
>four parts beginning February 24, 1997 and had even launched an extensive
>radio ad campaign to draw
>attention to the series. But virtually on the eve of the broadcast, the
>station pulled the reports after
>Monsanto hired a renowned New York attorney to complain to a top official
>of Channel 13's parent company,
>Fox television. The attorneyUs letter was filed with the complaint which
>is now posted at the web site.
>
>Local station management again carefully reviewed the investigative
>reports, found no errors in any of the
>reporting, re-scheduled them to air a week later, and even offered
>Monsanto the opportunity to be
>interviewed a second time, the suit says. Instead, the chemical maker
>responded with another threatening
>letter to the President of Fox's network news division and the WTVT
>reports were postponed again.
>
>In supporting papers filed with the court, the journalists say WTVT
>General Manager David Boylan refused
>to kill the story for fear the viewing public would learn the station
>yielded to pressure from special
>interests. Instead, Wilson and Akre allege, Boylan ordered the reporters
>to broadcast a version which
>contained demonstrably false information and he threatened to fire them
>both within 48 hours if they
>refused.
>
>Instead of being fired, the complaint continues, Boylan offered to release
>both reporters from further
>obligations and pay them full salary for the balance of their contracts if
>they would only agree never to
>discuss the BGH story or how it was handled by the station. The reporters
>declined the offer.
>
>What followed was nearly nine months of writing and re-writing the scripts
>more than 70 times, none of
>which suited Fox management according to the complaint which says Boylan
>then suspended both reporters but
>ordered them to write two final versions while suspended.
>
>The journalists say despite being locked out of their offices and the
>station computer system which held
>some of their research material, they produced both versions. One is the
>version written by the reporters,
>the other a version they say station management demanded they produce.
>Both scripts are attached to the
>suit with the so-called "mandated version" highlighted to include the
>reporters' detailed objections.
>
>"Nowhere in any of the dozens and dozens of versions weUve written did any
>Fox manager or lawyer ever
>point to even one error of fact," says reporter Steve Wilson. "Also, there
>was never any credible claim
>that either of us or anyone else who worked on the story ever conducted
>ourselves with anything but the
>highest journalistic ethics in researching and reporting the story."
>
>The original BGH investigation was sanctioned by WTVT shortly after it
>hired the two reporters in December
>1996. Akre says she visited seven Florida dairy farms at random early last
>year where she confirmed use of
>the hormone at each and every one. A photographer videotaped the mass
>injections of hundreds of cows on
>two of the farms. The hormone is injected every two weeks to stimulate
>milk production and boost dairy
>profits.
>
>Many scientists have expressed strong concerns about a possible link
>between cancer and the consumption of
>milk from cows injected with the synthetic hormone. Those and other human
>health concerns have blocked its
>approval in many other countries including Canada, New Zealand and every
>member nation of the Europe
>Union.
>
>Nonetheless, Monsanto which developed and sells the product has always
>insisted use of the hormone poses
>no human health risk of any kind. The FDA, whose veterinary medicine
>branch approved the animal drug in
>1993, agrees.
>
>Scientists who oppose the use of BGH argue that while the drug is said to
>shorten the life of the cow by
>speeding up its metabolism and causing certain infections, it also leads
>to changes in the cowsU milk. Dr.
>Samuel Epstein at the University of Illinois says, "There are highly
>suggestive if not persuasive lines of
>evidence showing that human consumption of milk from treated cows poses
>unnecessary risks of breast and
>colon cancer."
>
>Epstein, an acknowledged expert on the environmental causes of cancer, has
>three medical degrees, is the
>author of nine books, and is frequently called to testify as an expert
>before Congress. Other respected
>experts share his position. Some like Dr. William von Meyer have stated
>further concerns about whether BGH
>milk may cause other long-term health problems in humans. All the critics
>and even some BGH supporters
>agree the possibility has never been thoroughly investigated.
>
>Consumers have also expressed concern about how use of the drug can lead
>to high levels of antibiotic
>drugs in milk. Many farmers are forced to inject their animals with
>powerful drugs to fight infections and
>other side effects experienced by cows injected with the BGH.
>
>No labeling law in Florida requires milk producers to tell consumers when
>their milk or other dairy
>products come from cows treated with the controversial hormone. In fact,
>Monsanto has fought efforts by
>dairies that do not use the product from saying so on their labels. Ben
>and JerryUs ice cream, which buys
>only from farmers who do not inject
>
>their cows with BGH, just won a legal victory in Illinois to allow them to
>label their products
>artificial-BGH-free.
>
>In Wisconsin, Vermont, and elsewhere, consumers have demanded grocers stop
>carrying BGH milk or at least
>give shoppers a choice at the dairy case.
>
>"This is precisely what this is all about," said reporter Akre. "Yes, IUm
>an investigative reporter but
>IUm also a mother. I and every other mother and consumer deserve to hear
>all that is known about what I
>pour on my daughterUs cereal every morning. Only then can any of us decide
>for ourselves if there is any
>risk and whether it rises to a level we are willing to take."
>
