A columnist backed by Monsanto (fired for taking cash)

[quaoar]

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/jan2006/nf20060113_2851_db035.htm

Scripps Howard News Service announced Jan. 13 that it's severing its business relationship with columnist Michael Fumento, who's also a senior fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute. The move comes after inquiries from BusinessWeek Online about payments Fumento received from agribusiness giant Monsanto (MON ) -- a frequent subject of praise in Fumento's opinion columns and a book. Advertisement

In a statement released on Jan. 13, Scripps Howard News Service Editor and General Manager Peter Copeland said Fumento "did not tell SHNS editors, and therefore we did not tell our readers, that in 1999 Hudson recieved a $60,000 grant from Monsanto." Copeland added: "Our policy is that he should have disclosed that information. We apologize to our readers." In the Jan. 5 column, Fumento wrote that St. Louis-based Monsanto has about 30 products in the pipeline that will aid farmers, "but also help us all by keeping prices down and allowing more crops to be grown on less land."

< snip >

"YOU SHOULD CONTRIBUTE." In his career at Hudson, Fumento has carved out a specialty debunking critics of the agribusiness and biotechnology industries. In 1999, he says, he solicited $60,000 from Monsanto to write a book on the business. The book, entitled BioEvolution was published in 2003. A spokesman for Monsanto confirmed the payments to the Hudson Institute.

Asked about the payments, Fumento says, "I'm just extremely pro-biotech." He says he solicited several agribusiness companies to finance his book, which was published by Encounter Books. "I went after everybody, I've got to be honest," Fumento says of his fund-raising effort. "I told them that if I tell the truth in this book, the biotech industry is going to look really good, and you should contribute."

[meganmonkey]

1. Not surprised

but still disgusted :puke:

[Fenris]

2. Yeah, nothing quite like a factory farming/GM food apologist

[Zenlitened]

3. The "values" party strikes again!

Conservative columnist = high-paid whore.

[AlCzervik]

4. he also writes for the Nationial Review, i'm shocked i tell ya, shocked!

check out this little gem
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/fumento200407291243.asp

[quaoar]

5. Yep

He's a Bush apologist/corporate whore all right.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

7. thanks for the link. I KNEW I had seen his stuff before.

As more of this propaganda-presstitution becomes known, the better it is for us.

[AlCzervik]

8. if you google him you will find tons of stuff on him, also he had some

kind of war going with a blogger, i bet the blogger was on to him.

[boilinmad]

9. Well, now i have another conservative idiot to loathe.........

After googling this idiots name, the amount of bullshit is unbelieveable....These hatemongers need to STFU....

[quaoar]

6. He also claims that he is a victim of a 'witch hunt'

This is from the linked BW article:

"WITCH-HUNTING FRENZY." Fumento insists that disclosure of financial transactions between op-ed columnists and the companies they cover wouldn't be practical. The op-ed money trail is only now getting attention, he argues in an e-mail, because of BusinessWeek Online's recent revelation that Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff had paid two columnists for years to deliver good press to his clients (see BW Online, 12/16/05, "Op-Eds for Sale").

"We're in a witch-hunting frenzy now but, as after all witch hunts, people do return to their senses and regret the piles of ashes at their feet," Fumento writes. "Often it happened fast enough the witch hunters found themselves tied to the stake. I do hope that happens here."

[1932]

10. Why couldn't he tell the truth without getting paid?

"I told them that if I tell the truth in this book, the biotech industry is going to look really good, and you should contribute."

[Judi Lynn]

11. Looking for a photo of the guy, I found a site which claims he has shilled

for "big pharma."



http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=65&contentid=2446&page=2

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He's been a busy man, trying to sell his fellow humans down the river, all for a little more money.

[1932]

12. Reminds me of:

THE CRUISER

Marge drives. Grimsrud sits in the back seat, hands cuffed
behind him.

For a long moment there, he is quiet - only engine hum and
the periodic clomp of wheels on pavement seams - as Marge
grimly shakes her head.

MARGE
... So that was Mrs. Lundegaard
in there?

She glances up in the rear-view mirror.

Grimsrud, cheeks sunk, eyes hollow, looks sourly out at the
road.

Marge shakes her head.

At length:

MARGE
... I guess that was your
accomplice in the wood chipper.

Grimsrud's head bobs with bumps on the road; otherwise he is
motionless, reactionless, scowling and gazing out.

MARGE
... And those three people in
Brainerd.

No response.

Marge, gazing forward, seems to be talking to herself.

MARGE
... And for what? For a little
bit of money.

We hear distant sirens.

MARGE
... There's more to life than money,
you know.

She glances up in the rear-view mirror.

MARGE
... Don't you know that?... And
here ya are, and it's a beautiful
day...

Grimsrud's hollow eyes stare out.

The sirens are getting louder. Marge pulls over.

MARGE
... Well...

She leans forward to the dash to give two short signalling
WHOOPS on her siren.

She turns on her flashers.

She leans back with a creak and jangle of utilities.

She stares forward, shakes her head. We hear the dull click
of her flashers.

MARGE
... I just don't unnerstand it.

Outside it is snowing. The sky, the earth, the road - all
white.

A squad car, gumballs spinning, punches through the white.
It approaches in slow motion.

An ambulance punches through after it.

Another squad car.

[Judi Lynn]

13. Ha ha! I THOUGHT this sounded familiar. It's FARGO. Woohoooo.

I put the names from your snip in a search, and there it was, just as I had suspected. Very cool.

[pfitz59]

14. Looks like Omar Sharif!

[Judi Lynn]

16. Good grief! It probably IS Omar Sharif!I've heard he has a gambling prob.

That might explain why he'd be doing such unpleasant things to hustle for quick money.

You know, I've often NEVER WONDERED what Omar Sharif sitting on a rock without his skivs would look like! Now I know.

Hey, thanks!

[pfitz59]

15. Looks like Omar Sharif!

[gratuitous]

17. He didn't just take cash . . .

He actively solicited Monsanto for a hefty chunk of change, and Monsanto obliged. I wonder if Monsanto will come in for any kind of punishment? Of course not. What was I thinking?

[davidinalameda]

18. technically neither did anything wrong

on the surface, Monsanto just bought advertising

but I don't care if this guy is only a columnist--he has active ties to right wing think tanks and is a shill for the industry

the news service that carries this guy is as much to blame as anyone--they shouldn't be hiring people like this or at least make everything as transparent as they can

[splat@14]

19. Scooter Libby just got a job at Hudson, guess he's in good company.