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New York, 3:07 AM
Fri Nov 27
15 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/02/09
08/28/09
08/28/09
08/27/09
What about the columnist who writes about topics that he thinks will earn him big speaking fees down the line?
What about the columnist who writes about the same topic that her recently published book addresses?
What about the reporter who writes about the topic that he knows his publisher has a personal deep interest in?
Penn is what he his, so this is no defense - your complaint, however seems pretty, pretty vague...
How, exactly, are "journalist" ethics any different than "concrete wholesaler" ethics?
08/27/09
08/27/09
"I did write monthly columns for two magazines in 1999, but I would not have described myself as a journalist - no more so than, say, Laura Tyson, Robert Barro, or or Gary Becker, respected economists who write monthly columns for Business Week. I wrote a monthly column for Fortune; that column was neither a major commitment of time nor a major source of income. I also wrote a monthly column, for very little money, for Slate. My main sources of income were teaching, consulting, and business speaking.
5. Did I disclose my connection? Yes. I reported it the one time I mentioned Enron in Fortune, almost three years ago. I reported it again the first time I mentioned Enron in the New York Times, in a highly critical article more than a year ago. I didn't say that I was paid to serve on the board, but I thought that was obvious: who volunteers his services to for-profit corporations? "
08/27/09
[web.archive.org]
It's certainly ok to be wrong, and it makes it much more difficult to explain when you're taking $37,500 from the company you're so very, very wrong about.
08/27/09
08/27/09
08/27/09
08/27/09
08/27/09
08/27/09
08/27/09
08/27/09
Best quote? "Clearly what was done is not something that we liked. But we're pretty sure that it's going to stop."
We'll as long as they're pretty sure about it, I'm satisfied.
08/27/09
08/27/09
08/27/09
08/27/09
08/27/09
08/12/09
It’s very easy to demonize food companies and anyone who consults with them, but I have been able to accomplish a lot of good in public health by working with these companies.
For example, as chair of PepsiCo’s scientific advisory committee, one of the first things we advised PepsiCo to do eight years ago was to take the trans fats out of their foods at Frito-Lay, which they did at great expense. Several years ago, we were able to help facilitate a meeting with Steve Reinemund (then CEO of PepsiCo), President Clinton, and the American Heart Association which ultimately led to the decision for soft drink makers to voluntarily take out sweetened beverages from most school vending machines and to put healthier snacks there. We also advised them on developing healthier products, not marketing unhealthful foods to kids, improving food labeling, working to get physical education back in schools, and so on.
Also, I was responsible for getting McDonald’s to take the trans fatty acids out of their French fries. I also played a major role in getting McDonald’s to make salads available on their menu and to stop advertising high-sugar and high-fat foods to kids. (I have not consulted with McDonald’s for the past two years.)
Is this the solution to the obesity epidemic? Of course not--but even incremental changes on that scale (42 million customers/day) is worth doing.
I don’t represent these food corporations; I consult with them to make and market healthier foods, and I’m proud of this work.
At Safeway, I consulted with Steve Burd to incentivize wellness and to make it easier for employees to stay healthy—e.g., free mammograms, colonoscopies, healthier food in the cafeterias, easier access to exercise facilities, and so on. Yes, if you smoke then you pay higher premiums, but I think that’s the way it should be: freedom of choice and also personal responsibility for the consequences of those choices. Their approach is very different than most corporations, which often use the managed care approach to limit access to health care while raising premiums for everyone to cover the increasing costs. Safeway has a better approach, and I’m glad that the government is looking at their example of incentivizing wellness rather than illness.
For more information about my work, please go to [www.huffingtonpost.com]
Dean Ornish, M.D.
08/10/09
08/10/09
08/10/09
08/10/09
08/10/09
Increasingly there's a movement to blame all illness on lifestyle choices, and make pariahs out of sick people. My father drank and smoked heavily all his adult life, and outlived my mother, who quit doing both and died of leukimia. Health is not necessarily a reward of right living, and sickness is not necessarily a punishment for bad behavior.