Networks will report just about anything you say if your name is
Kennedy
Environmentalists claim
mercury link with autism is absolutely overwhelming
by Megan
Alvarez
July 15, 2005
When do journalists repeatedly cover something that the medical
community agrees is bogus? When the man behind those claims is named
Kennedy.
CBS added itself to the list of media outlets that have
given coverage to a discredited claim linking a preservative that
contains mercury, thimerosal, in childrens vaccines to autism. As a
result, it gave a left-wing environmentalist a chance to further
his hidden global warming agenda on national television.
On CBSs Evening News on July 14, 2005, anchor Bob
Schieffer called the link between autism and mercury a
controversy, even though he said medical experts did not believe
there was a link.
But Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. does and thats all that
matters.
Kennedy, who CBS labeled an environmental attorney,
appeared on the show claiming, The science connecting brain damage
with thimerosal is absolutely overwhelming. He even claimed the
government knows about this link and that it was being covered up in
some grand conspiracy.
CBS didnt mention that Kennedy was president of the
Waterkeeper Alliance, a liberal environmental group that currently
has a campaign to combat mercury contamination of the worlds
waterways. This group has also had ties to numerous other left-wing
environmental groups, including the Ban Mercury Working Group,
Greenpeace, and the Natural Resources Defense Council. None of the
media that interviewed Kennedy even bothered to ask why the
Waterkeeper Alliance is suddenly interested in autism.
All of those groups are trying to shut down coal-fired
power plants, allegedly because they release mercury into the
environment. However, a quick glance at the NRDC Web site makes it
clear what the real reason is. Under the global warming question and
answer section, there is the following question: What causes global
warming?" The answer: Coal-burning power plants are the largest
U.S. source of carbon dioxide pollution -- they produce 2.5 billion
tons every year.
CBS skipped over this information, even though it would
essentially link Kennedys campaign against thimerosal to
environmental regulations on coal-fired power plants, not a way to
help children.
Kennedy, who has now received coverage from numerous
media outlets, including ABC, the Raleigh News and Observer and The
New York Times, complained on CBSs program that the media has been
reluctant to cover this issue. This is ironic, given the coverage
Kennedy has received. The latest CBS story appeared both on the CBS
Evening News and on The Early Show. The New York Times piece ran
on the front page and filled a full page inside. And the ABC piece
was four minutes long.
Despite all that coverage, medical experts firmly
disagree with Kennedy that there is any threat at all.
Dr. Tanja Popovic from the Centers for Disease Control
said on CBS when talking of thimerosal and autism, Based on what we
know right now, we don't think that there is an association. In The
New York Times story from June 25, 2005, a doctor was quoted as
saying the link between thimerosal and autism was voodoo science,
which explains why CBS reporter, Sharyl Attkisson, asked Kennedy,
When you first heard about it, did you think it was kind of nutty?
Attkisson ended the report about the link between
thimerosal and autism saying, With the Kennedy name attached, it
seems destined to survive for now, only because networks, like
hers, continue to lend credence to his bogus claims.
Other BMI stories on news coverage of thimerosal
include
ABCs Mercury Straw Man
[1]and
Times Does Cover Story on
Voodoo Science. [2] Both of which have shown how the media has reported
on this bogus connectrion without linking it to a left-wing
environmental agenda.