Tabitha Powledge, in the blog section of the Public Library of Science pay-to-publish article website, claims to be an award-winning journalist. She needs an award-winning fact checker.
In an otherwise reasonable, if poorly written, screed about the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, she adds in this disjointed bit of historical revisionism: "The so-called American Council on Science and Health, the advocacy organization that cemented its reputation decades ago when it shilled for the tobacco industry..."
Since the American Council on Science and Health has had as one of its fundamental tenets ending smoking for 37 years, this makes no sense. Is she going to claim we lobbied against seat belts too? She must have meant the Natural Resources Defense Council. A large chunk of their foundation money was earned in the lungs of people who bought cigarettes. It's an easy mistake to make, perhaps she thinks we are the ones with $300 million in the bank rather than them.
Fortunately, the two people who read her work corrected her.
Even though she was absolutely writing a lie about us, it's ironic she thinks corporate funding would be bad - since she says she is a paid journalist, and they are corporations. Perhaps her next blog post could be on how to rationalize ethics when money is involved.
