Senator who attacked Doctor Oz over dietary supplements received over $146,000 in campaign contributions from Big Pharma mega-retailer and Monsanto

Wednesday, June 18, 2014
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Tags: Senator McCaskill, campaign contributions, pharma money

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(NaturalNews) The pieces of the puzzle are finally coming together on U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill's bizarre attack aimed at Doctor Oz. In a scathing Senate hearing exchange, Sen. McCaskill all but accused Doctor Oz of peddling quack weight loss products -- even though Oz actually runs a very meticulous, science-based operation where dietary supplements are heavily researched before being recommended to the public.

Now Natural News has learned that Sen. McCaskill received over $146,000 in campaign contributions from one of the largest pharmaceutical retailers in North America. According to campaign contribution data published at OpenSecrets.org, prescription drug mega-retailer Express Scripts gave McCaskill over $109,000 in campaign contributions, most of which was routed through lobbyist groups or PACs. (1)

Sen. McCaskill also accepted over $37,000 from Monsanto, widely regarded to be the most evil corporation in the world and an enemy of sustainable food production, heirloom seeds and traditional American farming methods.

Strangely, McCaskill also received over $32,000 from Google, Inc., and another $29,000 from Comcast.

In contrast, Doctor Oz receives no money whatsoever from recommending natural dietary supplements on his show. In fact, he goes out of his way to halt dietary supplement companies from using his name to promote such products.

Oz is the one operating in integrity here, while McCaskill is hiding her financial conflicts of interest. (Is anyone surprised?)

Blatant conflicts of interest kept hidden by Sen. McCaskill

Although these campaign contributions from a major drug retailer clearly present serious conflicts of interest with her line of questioning Doctor Oz, she failed to disclose these conflicts of interest in her conversation. Instead, she intentionally tried to make Doctor Oz look like a "bad guy" for recommending natural weight loss supplements (which he doesn't even sell, by the way) while in truth, McCaskill was merely working to eliminate the competition of her largest campaign contributors.

Natural weight loss supplements directly compete with prescription weight loss drugs, of course. But there's a lot more money to be made in prescription drugs sold by retailers like Express Scripts. McCaskill's attack was designed to intimidate Doctor Oz into halting his recommendations of natural products, thereby strengthening the near-monopoly of drug manufacturers and their lucrative retailing partners.

Now we know the rest of the story the mainstream media isn't reporting. This was never about green coffee bean extracts. Like almost everything else in Washington, it was always about protecting corporate interests at all costs. Even if it means raking an innocent guy over the coals and trying to intimidate him into silence.

Sources for this article include:
(1) http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contr...