In the past I have written that environmental activist groups like Oceana, "continue to operate in that gray area between skillfully under informing and blatantly misinforming." It would appear that foodconsumer.org writer Sheilah Downey and editor Heather Kelley have taken a page from Oceana's handbook of operational rhetoric in their article titled "Tuna Getting More Toxic." The pair is ostensibly reporting on a
So, today Greenpeace is firing up its well oiled PR machine and releasing yet another set of seafood sustainability retailer rankings, this time in Canada. Surely it will tell a recycled tale of woe and then-- thank goodness-- Greenpeace will be there to save the day, all the while honing its public relations extortion tactics.
Sometimes silence is golden and other times it's deafening.
While fashion blogs call Vogue's seafood article "yellow journalism," industry scribes explore the fashion mags missteps and main stream media works Vogue's questionable editorial practices into its daily gabfests... Vogue remains silent.
May 12, 2009
Ms. Abigail Walch
Vogue Magazine
VIA Email
Dear Ms. Walch:
An article published in the May issue [Mercury Rising, Bronwyn Garrity] contains several outright falsehoods along with irresponsible distortions that do a terrible disservice to readers and the public. We would like to ask for a formal correction along with an explanation for how this kind of reckless journalism could have gotten past the editors. Let me be specific:
May 12, 2009
Ms. Abigail Walch
Vogue Magazine
VIA Email
Dear Ms. Walch:
An article published in the May issue [Mercury Rising, Bronwyn Garrity] contains several outright falsehoods along with irresponsible distortions that do a terrible disservice to readers and the public. We would like to ask for a formal correction along with an explanation for how this kind of reckless journalism could have gotten past the editors. Let me be specific:
I'm sure by now that plenty of you are familiar with The Devil Wears Prada, a
Yesterday we took public exception with Greenwire about its reporting, or misreporting, on the USGS study about mercury pollution found in ocean water.
Friday's U.S. Geological Survey study on an apparent increase in mercury levels in the North Pacific has quickly become one of, if not the most misreported seafood story of the year. I'm confident it will end up earning this title based simply on the fact that it is not a study about seafood-- in fact it didn't even examine any seafood as part of its work. But journalists from here to Timbuktu are printin misinformed sound bite science from agenda drive sources whose press releases are openly manipulating the study.
