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November 22, 2005
USPIRG’S Thanksgiving Turkey
Scare stories are usually associated with Halloween, but USPIRG has been serving up this turkey of a toy report at Thanksgiving for oh so many years now! Please go to this site for a very common-sense response from our colleagues at the Toy Industry Association. Control plus click will get you there.
Posted by Marian at 3:07 PM | Comments (0)
November 10, 2005
A slap on the media's wrist
It appears that the media’s “reporting” of the recent USPIRG study of chemicals in baby toys was more than the science-media watchdogs at STATS could bear. (See our blog of October 14 titled “USPIRG Tricks Some Media.") STATS writer Trevor Butterworth is clearly unhappy with the level of effort the media brought to the story. He writes: “Dispiritingly, the PIRG report wasn’t so much reported in the media as announced – as if the very mention of public interest, risk, and toxic chemicals required no more of journalists than to write a summary of the group’s findings – and, at most, quoting an industry source denying the charges.”
Hear, hear! I might add, as that oft-quoted “industry source” on phthalates, it is discouraging to get media calls that do no more than seek the obligatory quote to give a story “balance” that will get it past the editors. It is a pleasure to deal with reporters who report, who try to get past “balance” and really try to get a story right. But that doesn’t always happen.
The STATS article can be found at http://www.stats.org/record.jsp?type=news&ID=520.
Posted by Marian at 5:12 PM | Comments (0)