Environment

Mad Deer Frozen in a Website's Headlights

Submitted by John Stauber on

The stunning outbreak of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in Wisconsin's wild herd of one and a half million white tail deer is finally drawing some serious US media attention to mad cow-type risks in the US. A rural Wisconsinite, Jay Newman, was so upset by developments and the lack of information for average citizens that he launched a website that now provides the most timely information available. It's a great example of how an average concerned citizen can use the web to make a real media difference on a critical breaking issue.

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Main Source: 
http://www.maddeer.org
Topics: 
Mad Cow Disease

Warning: Mad Deer Disease Might Kill People, Too.

Submitted by John Stauber on

The growing US epidemic of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), the 'mad deer disease' that has begun a massive shooting of over 15,000 deer in Wisconsin to try to stop its spread, is finally drawing some excellent journalistic coverage to the threat of mad cow-type diseases in the US. Ever since Oprah Winfrey was sued for the "food disparagement" crime of examining US mad cow risks, the US media has been cowed into giving very little attention to this very serious disease issue.

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Main Source: 
Rocky Mountain News, June 8, 2002
Topics: 
Mad Cow Disease

Bush to UN: 'We're Changing the Climate, So What?'

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

"In an extraordinarily secretive maneuver, the Bush administration has subtly altered its position on global warming, officially admitting that there is a crisis while still declining to offer policies to combat it," reports the Guardian. "A government report to the UN says that global warming exists, that it is man-made, and that it will transform the environment - all points that the current US government, while never actually denying, has been reluctant to accept.

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Main Source: 
The Guardian (UK), June 4, 2002
Topics: 
Climate Change
U.S. Government

AP's Mad Cow Reporting: Bad Then, Bad History Now

Submitted by John Stauber on

As we explain in our book Mad Cow USA, on June 3, 1997, the Associated Press circulated an outrageously inaccurate story claiming falsely that the Food and Drug Administration had "banned the use of virtually all slaughtered-animal parts in US livestock feed." Well, it's deja vu all over again, as this false and misleading AP story was featured today, five years later, in an AP column titled 'Today in History.' In reality, the FDA regulations have allowed the continuing feeding of billions of pounds a year of slaught

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Main Source: 
WashingtonPost.com, June 3, 2002
Topics: 
Mad Cow Disease

WI Official Feeds Public Dangerous Mad Deer Advice

Submitted by John Stauber on

As Wisconsin and other states face a growing epidemic of Chronic Wasting Disease, also dubbed the 'mad deer' epidemic, many outdoor writers, veterinarians and wildlife biologists are stumbling badly, dishing out inaccurate and potentially deadly human health advice regarding the risks of eating animals infected with this mad cow-like Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE). In the St.

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Main Source: 
St. Paul Pioneer Press, June 2, 2002
Topics: 
Mad Cow Disease

"Corporate Phantoms" Demonize the GE Food Debate

Submitted by John Stauber on

Two weeks ago, Guardian columnist George Monbiot described how the Bivings Group, a PR company contracted to Monsanto, invented fake citizens to post messages on internet listservers. "These phantoms had launched a campaign to force Nature magazine to retract a paper it had published, alleging that native corn in Mexico had been contaminated with GM pollen," Monbiot writes in today's column. "But this, it now seems, is just one of hundreds of critical interventions with which PR companies hired by big business have secretly guided the biotech debate over the past few years. ...

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Main Source: 
The Guardian (UK), May 29, 2002
Topics: 
Genetic Engineering
Front Groups
Corporations
Ethics

'Astroturf' Lobbying for Lawn Pesticides

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

A year after the Canadian Supreme Court's landmark ruling allowing municipalities to ban the use of lawn pesticides, the chemical industry is fighting back. "In many cases they have been successful in out-organizing the local communities," says Alex Cullen, a member of the Ottawa City Council. In Toronto, for example, public meetings last week on a proposed pesticide ban were overwhelmed by representatives from lawn-care companies sporting T-shirts, handing out pamphlets and offering quick comebacks to any question.

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Main Source: 
Canada.com, May 26, 2002
Topics: 
Astroturf
Environment

The Spreading Plague of US 'Mad Deer' Disease

Submitted by John Stauber on

As we report in our book Mad Cow USA (available on this website as a free PDF download), the British and US governments' mishandling of the threat of mad cow-type diseases is a case study in how "PR crisis management" protects industry at the expense of human and environmental health.

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Main Source: 
Wall Street Journal, May 24, 2002
Topics: 
Mad Cow Disease

Brits Propose Law to Shut Up Protesters

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

The Independent of England has obtained a copy of a secret internal memorandum circulating in the UK's Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which proposes an "urgent" change in the law by November to crack down on objections to the genetically modified crops.

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Main Source: 
The Independent (UK), May 19, 2002
Topics: 
Activism
Genetic Engineering
Human Rights
International

The Fake Persuaders

Submitted by Laura Miller on

"Persuasion works best when it's invisible. The most effective marketing worms its way into our consciousness, leaving intact the perception that we have reached our opinions and made our choices independently," writes Guardian columnist George Monbiot. "As old as humankind itself, over the past few years this approach has been refined, with the help of the internet, into a technique called 'viral marketing'. Last month, the viruses appear to have murdered their host.

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Main Source: 
Guardian (UK), May 14, 2002
Topics: 
Genetic Engineering
Science

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