In an essay for the Public Library of Science, the former editor of the British Medical Journal, Richard Smith, argues that while corporate advertising may be the most obvious source of revenue for medical journals, they are "the least corrupting." More significant, he writes, are the clinical trials the journal publishes which carry "the journal's stamp of approval (unlike the advertising)." While journals can more tightly screen what gets published, Smith thinks more fundamental steps are required to "stop journals from being beholden to companies." He argues more public funding to research treatments is needed, and journals should consider not publishing trials at all. Trial results, he suggests, "should be made available on regulated Web sites. Instead of publishing trials, journals could concentrate on critically describing them." But the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine accused Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline and Merck of "making a mockery" of an online list of drug trials, saying the companies' entries "are written in a way that they are trying to hide what they are doing."

A worker who knows Social Security "could run out before they retire," a couple with children who like "the idea of leaving something behind to the family," and a single parent who wants "more retirement options and security" than Social Security offers - all younger than 29. Those are people the White House asked the group Women Impacting Public Policy to recruit for a Rochester, New York event promoting Bush's Social Security plan. The participants in a Wisconsin event last week "appeared to mirror" the same profile, reported the Los Angeles Times. A White House spokesperson said, "Every president ... has used the bully pulpit to talk about their agenda." Barbara Kennelly, a former Democratic Congresswoman who heads the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, said, "It's unfortunate that the president never hears any opposition to a plan that has a lot of opposition."

"The vilification of threatening research as 'junk science' and the corresponding sanctification of industry-commissioned research as 'sound science' has become nothing less than standard operating procedure in some parts of corporate America," writes Clinton-era Energy Department epidemiologist David Michaels. One example is beryllium, an "extremely toxic" metal used in nuclear warheads. Beryllium producers hired two "product defense" firms to "dispute and reanalyze data showing adverse health effects." Michaels says industry groups "have grown more brazen since George W. Bush became president," pointing to industry-friendly appointments to an advisory panel on childhood lead poisoning and the Data Quality Act. The Data Quality Act (promoted at the state level by the American Legislative Exchange Council) has been "used by groups bankrolled by the oil industry to discredit the National Assessment on Climate Change" and "by the Salt Institute to challenge the advise of the National Institutes of Health that Americans should reduce their salt consumption."

The London office of U.S.-based PR giant Hill & Knowlton signed a $600,000 contract with the government of Uganda, "to improve Uganda's stained reputation as a human rights abuser and democracy laggard." Foreign Minister Sam Kuteesa confirmed the contract, which calls for Hill & Knowlton "to improve Uganda's image with donors and to help blunt damaging reports from human rights watchdogs that have been highly critical of the government." In Uganda, political activity is "restricted" and planned elections in 2006 "have been overshadowed by a controversial bid to amend the constitution so President Yoweri Museveni can stand for a third term." Reports by the New York-based organization Human Rights Watch have "documented recent cases of torture by Ugandan security forces against political opponents, alleged rebels and criminal suspects."

"Back when Mel Gibson's movie 'The Passion of the Christ' was arousing passions nationwide, a promotion packet arrived at local public radio station KAZU," writes Karen Ravn in California. It included "a transcript of questions an enterprising reporter might want to ask Jim Caviezel, the movie's star," and "a CD of Caviezel-recorded answers." As KAZU's news director at the time, Bernhard Drax, described, "The transcript would say, 'Hi, Jim, how are you?' and on the CD, Jim would say, 'I'm fine. It's good to be here.'" KAZU didn't air the canned interview, but Drax said he understood why other radio stations might. "The pressure in local newsrooms ... is incredible," said Drax. Audio news releases like the Caviezel interview help ease the "economic pressure" on strapped radio newsrooms.