Greenpeace is out ranking grocery stores again but the fact is these contrived rankings have become background noise during an important seafood sustainability discussion that has seen responsible ENGO's move forward with initiatives that show real promise and progress. Despite insistence that "several stores have already begun to develop sustainable seafood procurement policies" it presents no evidence those efforts are as a direct result of Greenpeace's continued attempts at public relations blackmail.
Today the Associated Press (AP) is reporting on a new study that claims "failed policies" have lead to "corruption" and "overfishing" the world over. For a venerable news agency it is an article that is packed with a surprising amount of hyperbole and maddeningly little research.
Jeremy Piven, is back in the headlines this morning thanks to a piece in People where he tells correspondent Nicholas White that he's been "fish-free' for 10 months now. You'll recall that at the end of last year that Piven abruptly pulled out of a Broadway production of Speed the Plow after complaining that he was suffering from a variety of maladies brought on by mercury poisoning that was caused by a diet that included too much fish.
It's not hard to become enamored with Greenpeace if you don't look below the surface. Save the whales, protect the forest, defend the earth-great goals. But what about distort the facts, destroy the property and misappropriate the science-not great tactics.
This week actor Jeremy Piven takes his "I got mercury poisoning from eating too much fish and had to bail out of your play" argument before an arbiter as the play's producers seek money from the hard-partying star.
Apparently we haven't heard the usual whining and distorting associated with this silly case because the New York Post reports "everybody's under a gag order."
It was just yesterday that I sent the following letter to CNN International challenging its coverage of tuna.
June 9, 2009
Byron Harmon
Senior Executive Producer
CNN International
VIA Email
Dear Mr. Harmon,
I am writing to draw your attention to several issues regarding basic journalistic standards in reference to Arwa Damon's report "Tuna Becoming Scarce."
I have written it so many times I must sound like a broken record. When explaining the way Oceana prefers to communicate I say it, "continues to operate in that gray area between skillfully under informing and blatantly misinforming." And apparently that goes for its celebrity spokesperson, Ted Danson, too.
Foodconsumer.org is regretting its error this morning. You'll note in this story that;
"An article posted on foodconsumer was mistakenly titled "Tuna Getting More Toxic" and stated that "methylmercury contamination in Pacific Ocean fish" has increased. It should have read "contamination in Pacific Ocean waters has increased." Foodconsumer regrets the error."
