OT: Monsanto- Fox scandal, genetically altered milk

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>Project Censored <censored

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>Monday, July 17, 2000 10:08 AM

>Alert

>

>

>

>For immediate release

>July 14, 2000

>

>Ralph Nader, Walter Cronkite On Witness List

>Fired Journalists Stand Up To Media Empire;

>Whistleblower Case Is First Of Its Kind

>

> While an increasing number of Americans suspect mainstream news

>organizations sometimes twist the news, two veteran investigative

>journalists say they are ready to prove in court how Fox television

>managers and lawyers at WTVT Fox 13 in Tampa ordered them to deliberately

>distort news reports and then fired them for resisting those directives.

>

> The landmark whistleblower lawsuit is believed to be the first time

>any journalist has ever filed a claim against his own news organization

>and offered evidence of behind-the-scenes manipulation of the news.

>

> When the trial begins next Monday, reporters Jane Akre (pronounced

>A’-cree) and Steve Wilson say they will show exactly how Fox hired them

>and advertised their reputations for hard-hitting investigations but then

>folded and pressured them to slant a story in favor of an advertiser who

>threatened " dire consequences " if their reports were broadcast.

>

> CBS journalist Walter Cronkite and public interest advocate Ralph

>Nader are both on the plaintiffs’ witness list, despite efforts by Fox

>attorneys who desperately sought to block their testimony.

>

> The trial will pit the two fired journalists with Wilson representing

>himself for more than two years in an effort to save money on legal fees,

>and Akre represented by a small Tampa firm—against the powerful Washington

>law firm of Williams & Connolly, the same lawyers who represent President

>Bill Clinton personally. To get their day in court, the plaintiffs have

>sold their home, spent their life savings battling the media giant, and

>say they have been branded as media traitors never likely to get another

>good job in the business again.

>

> To the amazement of most legal observers, the reporters paved their

>way to court by defeating three Fox motions to summarily dismiss the case

>without a trial. Those victories were engineered by Akre's legal team led

>by John Chamblee and Tom Johnson.

>

> At the heart of the dispute is a series of reports produced by Akre

>and Wilson revealing the widespread and virtually secret use of a

>synthetic hormone being injected into dairy cows throughout Florida and

>much of the U.S. The hormone causes cows to produce more milk.

>

> The investigative reports that Fox abruptly pulled from its schedule

>in early 1997 would have revealed that without the consent or approval of

>milk drinkers and those who serve it daily to their children, use of the

>synthetic hormone has altered what used to be called nature's most nearly

>perfect food.

>

> The stories would have also disclosed for the first time that leading

>grocers now admit they quietly broke their 1994 promises not to buy milk

> >from hormone-injected cows until the practice achieved widespread

>acceptance. Surveys have shown that the vast majority of consumers do

>not want artificial hormones in their milk and would avoid such milk if it

>were labeled. No dairy anywhere is known to label its milk as coming from

>cows injected with artificial hormones.

>

> Although legal in America, the artificial bovine growth hormone (rBGH)

>has been banned in Canada, throughout Europe, and elsewhere due in large

>part to concern about health risks for milk drinkers. One of the chief

>concerns is that while the growth hormones do cause the cows to produce

>more milk, the milk is changed in a way that could promote breast, colon

>and prostate cancer.

>

> " In wake of the two written threats1,2 from Monsanto to Fox News

>chief Roger Ailes, we were asked to put Fox’s interest in its own bottom

>line ahead of the public interest, " said plaintiff Steve Wilson. Monsanto

>is the multi-national chemical company that makes the genetically

>engineered hormone.

>

> " When the president of Fox Television Stations saw those threats,

>that executive who controls more television stations than anyone in

>America simply ordered his lawyers to ‘take no risks’ with the story. "

>Wilson said. The executive’s directive has been confirmed in sworn

>testimony from two Fox attorneys3,4 in the written notes of one them.5

>

> " And we have also discovered, in another handwritten note of one of

>the broadcaster's attorneys, that if they tried to kill the story and word

>leaked out, it would be a major p-r problem for Fox’ " said co-plaintiff

>Akre. " So they decided to eliminate their risk by pressuring us to

>placate Monsanto and essentially lie to the public. No decent journalist

>can ever do that. "

>

> The reporters will testify that Fox managers first threatened to fire

>them for insubordination, then offered them a six-figure deal to entice

>them to go along. When the pair refused, they say they were strung along

>for months re-writing the story 83 times in an effort to get it on the air

>before being suspended, locked out, and ultimately fired by Fox for what

>the broadcasting company claimed was " no cause. "

>

> The reporters will not be able to tell the jury about a second deal

>Fox offered to pay each reporter a whole year’s salary for no-show jobs as

> " news consultants " in exchange for their leaving quietly and never

>disclosing to anyone what they learned regarding the milk or the quality

>of Fox journalism. The trial court ruled that the second six-figure deal

>was actually made to try and avoid a lawsuit. To encourage out-of-court

>settlements, such offers cannot be admitted into evidence when disputes

>cannot be settled without a trial.

>

> The issue has drawn world-wide attention as a result of a website the

>journalists posted the day their lawsuit was filed. The reporters, who

>happen to be married to each other, have also traveled far and wide to

>accept invitations to speak about genetically engineered milk and their

>experiences with Fox. They have vowed not to personally benefit from

>their efforts to publicize the story Fox refused to tell.

>

> Many of the documents from the suit are posted on the World Wide Web

>at

>http://www.foxBGHsuit.com

>

>For further information or to arrange interviews:

>

>Jane Akre or Steve Wilson (727) 796-6504 or wilson

>John Chamblee or Tom Johnson, Akre's Attorneys (813) 251-4542

>

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>-----------------------------

>Greg Ruggiero | Seven Stories Press | www.sevenstories.com

>-----------------------------

>

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