An NBC journalist has taken to social media to criticize “snarky
posts” questioning whether apparently wasteful research funded by the National
Institutes of Health (NIH), like the one that spent $3.2 million studying drunken
monkeys [1], was a worthwhile use of taxpayer funds.
Phil Williams, Chief Investigative Reporter at NBC’s Nashville affiliate, defended these NIH studies in a Facebook post, urging his readers to “remember alcoholism kills 88,000 people EVERY YEAR in the U.S.”
Williams’ comments were directed toward journalists attempting to expose government waste at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Officials from both of those agencies hypocritically faulted conservatives in Congress for allegedly cutting their budgets and therefore hampering efforts to contain Ebola, despite numerous examples of wasteful spending.