dysnomia.us

obscuring the truth for a living

You may have caught the Technoccult post I linked to the other day, about mercury being found in high fructose corn syrup. That post received a visit from a PR hack trying to defend the good name of HFCS. Klintron tells us the poster came from Weber Shandwick, apparently the world’s largest PR firm (WS site | CMD Sourcewatch | Wikipedia).

Fortunately, the good folks at Green Daily have given us a guide to just how Weber Shandwick has been telling lies without telling lies on this story:

• Fun with language! Corn syrup press release stops just short of bald-faced lies!

First off, by stating that it challenges the “relevance and accuracy” of the Environmental Health study, the CRA stops short of declaring the study to be false. This, incidentally, protects the association from litigation, as well as allowing it to claim some small measure of honesty.

And the editor at Natural News seems to have run into these folks before:

• High Fructose Corn Syrup Contaminated with Toxic Mercury, Says Research (opinion)

A Weber Shandwick representative calls me every time I post an article about HFCS, by the way, usually with demands that I remove the entire article. I’ve invited the Corn Refiners Association to a phone interview to defend their position that HFCS doesn’t cause diabetes or obesity, and to answer questions about whether HFCS is really “natural.” So far, they have declined to be interviewed. It seems they don’t want to face real questions from an honest journalist who refuses to be censored by powerful corporations.

One thing I’ve got to say about the Corn Refiners Association is that they have a well-funded PR machine running around the internet trying to make everybody remove stories that say anything negative about HFCS.

Weber Shandwick lists its HQ as 919 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10022. Businessweek lists their address as 640 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10019-6102. Both agree that their phone number is (212)445-8000.