Our fight over the truth about tilapia continues. Earlier today, the Winston-Salem Journal issued a pair of corrections to the story they ran earlier this week that erroneously claimed NFI was orchestrating profit-driven attacks on research published by Dr. Floyd "Ski" Chilton, rather than simply holding the media accountable for not including dissenting voices in their coverage. Here's what ran in today's paper:
"A story Monday on the controversy surrounding a study on the health benefits of tilapia contained two errors. It said that officials with the National Fisheries Institute said they were attacking the study because of its potential to hurt tilapia sales. The institute said it is trying to educate consumers. The story also said that a letter that took issue with the study's findings was from the institute. It was from 16 scientists, none affiliated with the institute."
While we're grateful that the Journal ran these corrections, we still have more than a few questions. Of particular concern was Richard Craver's claim in the original story that NFI stated it takes issue with the study because of the potential to hurt tilapia sales. I want to reiterate, Craver never interviewed any representative of NFI - he certainly never called me, something which has to be looked at as an unforgivable oversight. The only contact between NFI and the Journal came via email. Further, none of the press releases nor any of the blog posts NFI published on this topic mentioned the effect of the study on the sale of tilapia.
This leads us to ask: What was Mr. Craver's explanation as to how this assertion was included in the story? I think NFI deserves an answer.
Another minor detail - the letter NFI dietitian Jennifer Wilmes referred to was not from NFI, as Craver claimed. It was from a panel of 16 independent scientists hoping to reassure consumers about the healthfulness of tilapia.
But what's really galling is that had these two facts been presented correctly in Monday's story, it would have totally undermined the reporter's assertion that NFI is attacking the findings of Dr. Chilton's study. I'll repeat: Our beef isn't with Dr. Chilton's findings regarding omega-3s and omega-6s in fish, but rather, it's with the way the national press - including the Winston-Salem Journal - continues to distort those findings in a way that could have a negative impact on public health, while deliberately ignoring dissenting scientific opinions.
Worse yet, the damage continues. You see, even though we took our concerns directly to the Winston-Salem Journal, that didn't stop them from forwarding the uncorrected story to the Scripps Howard News Service. Which is why that same uncorrected story ran this week in the Chicago Sun-Times.
UPDATE: You can see the original story with the edited corrections by clicking here.
