Michael Fumento
Michael Fumento is an author, journalist and lawyer specialising in science and health issues. He received his undergraduate degree while serving in the Army, where he achieved the rank of sergeant. In 1985 he was graduated from the University of Illinois College of Law and is currently a member of the Pennsylvania bar. In both 2005 and 2006 he was an embedded journalist in Afghanistan and Iraq. [3].
Fumento is the author of BioTech: How biotechnology is changing our world, Science Under Siege, Polluted Science, The Fat of the Land, and The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS. The latter was widely criticised by Aids activists and public health officials [4]. Fumento has also been widely criticised for coining the term "tampon terrorism" to attack women's groups that have raised concern about dioxin in chlorine-bleached tampons [5]. In 2000, Fumento was one of the authors of the "Fear Profiteers" report on the nomorescares website of tobacco-hack and junkman Steven Milloy.[6].
He is a regular contributor to Tech Central Station.
Journalism
Fumento has been a nationally syndicated columnist for the Scripps Howard News Service, a legal writer for the Washington Times, a science correspondent for Reason magazine, editorial writer for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, and was the first “National Issues" reporter for Investor’s Business Daily. He embedded four times in Iraq and Afghanistan. His research and reporting from Ramadi, was praised by Gen. David Petraeus who called it “Great stuff with a great unit in a very tough neighborhood!"[1] Some of his combat video footage has aired on the History Channel.[2]
Monsanto controversy
On January 13, 2006, Scripps Howard announced it would terminate its business relationship with Fumento and cease carrying his column. At issue were opinion columns Fumento had written concerning the biotechnology firm Monsanto Company while working at the Hudson Institute. The connection between Fumento and Monsanto was first revealed by investigative reporter Eamon Javers in Business Week,[3] although nowhere does it say there was a quid pro quo as many articles and blogs subsequently claimed.[4] General manager Peter Copeland explained that Fumento
After the story was published, Fumento acknowledged that he benefited from Monsanto's grant to Hudson: Template:Quote However, Fumento said Scripps Howard had no such policy and that the syndicate canceled his column upon receiving a phone call from Javers, without consulting him. Moreover, such a policy wouldn't make sense, he said, because it presumes once you’ve benefited from a grant you are considered forever in the donor's debt.[5]
Fumento wrote that he didn’t begin the Scripps column until four years after getting the grant,[6] had been writing pro-biotech pieces since six years before receiving the grant,[6] and that “shortly after [receiving it he “ripped Monsanto for being ‘chicken-hearted’[7] and “caving into environmentalist demands.”[8] Moreover, he wrote, of the approximately 100 columns he published only three so much as mentioned Monsanto, one in a single sentence.[6]
Affiliations
References
- ^ Michael Fumento Biography, Accessed 27th August 2007.
- ^ Washington Monthly The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS, Accessed 27th August 2007.
- ^ PRWatch Terrorism as Pretext, Accessed 27th August 2007.
- ^ CGFI Do Socially Responsible Businesses Sow Health Scares to Reap Monetary Rewards?, Accessed 27th August 2007.
Notes
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedfumento.com - ↑ [1]
- ↑ Eamon Javers, "A Columnist Backed by Monsanto", Business Week, January 13, 2006.
- ↑ Payola burns biotech pundit. Nctimes.com. Retrieved 2012-11-26.
- ↑ Fumento, "How the Conservative Columnist Witch Hunt Burned Me".
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Columnist Michael Fumento Defends Book Grant. Fumento.com. Retrieved 2012-11-26.
- ↑ ( [2]
- ↑ Michael Fumento: How the Conservative Columnist Witch Hunt Burned Me. Fumento.com. Retrieved 2012-11-26.
