Ethics

Heart of Stone

Even Republican dirty-tricks operator Roger J. Stone, Jr. now says he regrets helping elect George W. Bush president in 2000. Stone, who led the "Brooks Brothers riot" that disrupted the 2000 election recount in Florida, now says he is troubled by the Bush administration's trampling of civil liberties and the war in Iraq.

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Journalists for Sale

"Dan Abrams, the chief legal correspondent for NBC News who recently lost his prime-time cable news show, is forming a consulting firm that he hopes will connect a global Rolodex of media experts with businesses that need strategic advice," reports Brian Stelter. "The firm, Abrams Research, may resemble a narrowly focused version of 'expert network' firms that connect investors to industry experts.

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Bisphenol A: A Chemical with Deep-Pocketed Friends

Bottle-feeding a babyThe same month that Martin Philbert was named the chair of a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) panel considering the safety of bisphenol A, a defender of the chemical made a $5 million grant to Philbert's research center.

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The Beginning of the End of Cigarettes for Sale in Pharmacies?

Pharmacy Brand SmokesOn October 1, 2008, the city of San Francisco put a law into effect that prohibits the sale of cigarettes in pharmacies. Walgreens drug store chain and Altria/Philip Morris have filed lawsuits against the city over the measure. In a September 30, 2008 statement about the new law, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom related the city's simple rationale: "Pharmacies should be places where people go to get better, not where people go to get cancer."

FDA Tries to Pay Qorvis $300K Under the Table

After the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was "pummeled by Congress for poor inspections of tainted vegetables, drugs and other products," the agency wanted public relations help. First, it hired Mildred Cooper as "a temporary FDA consultant ... on a two-year contract to advise FDA Commissioner Andrew C.

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"Clean Coal" Boosters Plan to Ridicule Renewable Energy

A leaked draft PR plan by the Clean Coal Council, a Queensland state government partnership with the coal industry, stated that a "key outcome" would be to "turn around attitudes that clean coal is an unproven and unsafe technology." While the PR plan noted that "stakeholders" wanted investment directed to "emissions-free renewable energy technologies, not clean coal," the Council has other ideas.

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