Sir John Krebs' pals at the food and drink industry funded SIRC, it seems, have been working on READERS DIGEST UK and have encouraged them to set up a regular feature called "You shouldn't believe it". According to READERS DIGEST:
"We will publish 'You Shouldn't Believe It' regularly in the magazine, uncovering bogus reporting of not just health issues, but food and diet, the environment and education. ****Next time, we will focus on food scares.*** Send any alarming reports you come across, with your full name, address and phone number, to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.."
The SIRC are encouraging their supporters (GM food fans) to take full advantage of this opportunity, so why don't you?
Why not send them examples of food scares relating to organic food and who's behind the campaign of misinformation? The e-mail address again is: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. For more on organic food scares see: http://members.tripod.com/~ngin/organic.htm
For more on the SIRC see: BAD COMPANY -reporting the business of science: How the Royal Institution, the Royal Society, and the director of the Food Standards Agency, got into bed with a bunch of scientists-for-sale in order to tell journalists how to report the GM debate (includes multiple links on corporate deception involving researchers and the media)
Bit more of the SIRC bulletin, below - full article with associated links on the uk media's backlash against scares, greens, prince charles etc. can be found at: http://www.sirc.org/articles/2001_backlash.html
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In the January 2001 UK edition of Readers' Digest the editor, Russell Twisk, directs our attention to the first of an occasional series by Lucy Wildman called "You shouldn't believe it." He notes that Wildman, RD's Research Editor, "has been concerned about the number of times health stories we check for our compilation 'News of Medicine' do not stand up to examination."
In the article itself she draws quite extensively on SIRC's material and on an interview with Co-director, Peter Marsh. It challenges, for example, the Daily Mail's lack of responsibility in publishing an article alleging that abortion could lead to breast cancer, also the subject of SIRC comment in Daily Mail bitten. Similar condemnation follows regarding misleading reports of the supposed dangers of MMR vaccine and microwave ovens, and the raising of false hopes regarding 'miracle' cures for arthritis.
The Reader's Digest article includes some of SIRC's Guidelines on the reporting of science and health issues and concludes: "We will publish 'You Shouldn't Believe It' regularly in the magazine, uncovering bogus reporting of not just health issues, but food and diet, the environment and education. Next time, we will focus on food scares. Send any alarming reports you come across, with your full name, address and phone number, to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.." That's an invitation we hope you will not refuse.