Meet the Mad Hatter

"Then you should say what you mean," the March Hare went on.

"I do," Alice hastily replied; "at least--at least I mean what I say--that's the same thing, you know."

"Not the same thing a bit!" said the Hatter. "You might just as well say that "I see what I eat" is the same thing as "I eat what I see"!"

Lewis Carroll

Just about anyone in the United States can grab all kinds of information on just about anything. Education cannot compete with the information industry, nor should it. Our value lies in teaching how to think, how to discern, how to know what is true.

The Food and Drug Administration has been circulating a draft report within the government that argues the health benefits of eating fish outweigh the potential ill effects of mercury.

Associated Press

No new science here, just politics--though other sources of fish exist, the FDA threw a bone to the food industry before our regime change. The EPA quickly fired off a retort, and I doubt that the gummint's official position is likely to change. Politicians are clumsy, you can read all about it, but that's not worth a post here--this is an edublog, not the Daily Kos.

What is worth an edublog post, however, is how information is manipulated by private money.

The AP article above quotes the Center for Consumer Freedom:

The food industry is praising the FDA's shift. One organization, the Center for Consumer Freedom, called it "long overdue and a huge public-health victory" that "just might be the best Christmas present health-conscious Americans could hope for."

This is what the news media calls balanced reporting. Go to their website--it's actually big fun! You might even pick up some good information.

What you won't learn is that the "organization" is a front for Berman and Company, which lobbies for the food and alcohol industry. Its initial money ($600,000) came from the Philip Morris company, not the guy down the street, not the local farmer, nor the woman running the local bodega.

David Martosko is the "Research Director," a purty fancy hat for "a music major in college and then an AM radio talk show producer." Does he have a right to push the food industry's agenda? Sure. He's got Daddy's money.

Should the CCF get a tax break as a tax exempt non-profit educational organization? Beats me, I'm not a tax lawyer.

Should a lobbying firm be able to hide behind a front posing as a non-profit organization looking out for your interests? That's madness.

Pretending the CCF offers balance to any news story is also crazy, yet the AP continues to do it.

Maybe their mommas ate too much tuna.

[Full disclosure, Mr. Martosko: I am the brother of Mary Beth Doyle, yep, that one. She believed people are capable of rational thought, honesty, and the capacity for change.]