The Wall Street Journal has published a revealing story about one of the seamier sides of the drug industry's marketing campaigns: paying patients to offer testimonials about their drugs. As health industry observer Merrill Goozner explains, the story came to light because a "celebrity patient" had a "falling out with his corporate sponsor, Bristol-Myers Squibb. Andy Behrman is bipolar, and he earned $10,000 a day or $400,000 in total singing the praises of Abilify (aripiprizole, an atypical antipsychotic drug) to Bristol-Myers' drug salesmen and physician-consultants. Behrman's presentations worked off talking points provided by a public relations firm." He was supposed to tell people that the drug had no side effects and not to tell them that he was being paid by the company. "Behrman now claims he suffered serious side effects while on the drug," Goozner notes. He makes these and other charges in a new tell-all book. In response, the company says that he attempted to shake them down for a $7.5 million contract before turning against his former handlers.

PR Watch has reported previously on conflict of interest issues surrounding psychiatrist Fred Goodwin, the former host of "The Infinite Mind" public radio series. In his role as host of the show, Goodwin talked up the advantages of antidepressant drugs while failing to disclose that he had received $1.2 million in fees for giving marketing lectures on behalf of pharmaceutical companies. After the funding was revealed publicly, Goodwin attempted to claim that he had informed the show's producer, Bill Lichtenstein, of his financial ties to drugmakers (a claim initially echoed by National Public Radio's "On the Media" show). Now Lichtenstein is claiming vindication, and NPR has issued a retraction and public apology for its claim that Lichtenstein knew. Goodwin has also backed away from saying that he disclosed the payments, claiming instead that he doesn't "see these things as a conflict of interest."

The Journal of the American Medical Association is requiring that anyone who complains to its editors about conflict of interest violations at the publication must remain silent publicly while they investigate the complaint. "The new policy is the result of a public spat with Jonathan Leo, a professor of neuro-anatomy at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn.," explains the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Last fall, Leo informed the JAMA editors that the lead author of a study evaluating a drug for depression had failed to disclose his ties to the company that makes the drug. "However, Leo also sent his original complaint to the New York Times and publicly aired the issue in the British Medical Journal, leading to several heated telephone exchanges" and a public incident when JAMA's editor-in-chief dismissed Leo as "a nobody and a nothing."

After pleading guilty to counts of perjury and three of disclosing a confidential hearing, the former media director for Australia's Victoria Police, Stephen Linnell, has been fined $A5,000 and sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for two years. Linnell, a former journalist, became a friend of the then-assistant commissioner, Noel Ashby, after being appointed media director in 2003. In May 2007, Ashby was a suspect in an investigation by the Office of Police Integrity (OPI) into the leaking of confidential information. "When Linnell received a summons for a secret Office of Police Integrity hearing that was part of the leak investigation, he ignored the confidentiality notice attached and sought advice from Ashby. Then he repeatedly lied under oath when asked if he had told anyone he was appearing at the OPI hearing on September 25, 2007. And despite being warned not to discuss his testimony, he immediately talked tactics with Ashby," Sarah-Jane Collins and John Silvester report. Linnell admitted leaking information on an investigation into the murder of male prostitute to Ashby.

After it was revealed that the floundering American International Group (AIG) had hired Burson Marsteller (B-M) as one of its PR advisers, Rachel Maddow, the host of “The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC, wondered who else the firm had worked for. After a scathing review of their past clients -- including the Argentinean military dictatorship, Philip Morris, and Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu -- Maddow concluded that "when evil needs public relations, evil has Burson-Marsteller on speed dial.” In response, B-M CEO Mark Penn wrote an internal email to staff claiming that Maddow "significantly mischaracterized the nature of the firm's past." In the email, which was leaked to PR Week, Penn wrote that "we are and should be proud of the work we do. ... While we can't spend our time responding to every attack that comes our way over the internet or cable television, I do think it is important that I reach out to each of you to let you know that we have a good story to tell about the work we do."

"Fueled by tax-deductible donations and an explosion in philanthropic assets, think tanks have dramatically grown in size and influence during the past 100 years," writes J.H. Snider, himself a think tank fellow. "U.S. think tanks increased in number from eight in 1910 to 98 in 1960 and 1,106 in 2006. ... Despite think tanks' billions of dollars of tax subsidies and considerable power, they have received minimal public scrutiny and are often poorly understood." Think tanks should establish ethical guidelines specifying "what types of lobbying, plagiarism and donor promises will be publicly disclosed or banned," Snider suggests. Think tanks should also be required to disclose their donors, as do "lobbyists and political candidates," and acknowledge "ethical conflicts." In addition, "the media should do a better job covering think tanks," especially around "think tanks' revolving door with government, functioning in orchestrated lobbying campaigns and claiming credit for others' work."