Paul Offit is just as corrupt and biased when it comes to vaccines as Kevin Folta is with GMOs

(NaturalNews) Author and former CBS News investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson built quite a reputation over her more than two decades in journalism as a fearless, non-partisan pursuer of the truth. Wherever a story took her, she followed. She kept digging until she finally got to the truth.

That's why she no longer works at CBS News, by the way; many of her stories in recent years reflected poorly on the Obama administration. The network is run by Les Moonves, a financial supporter of President Obama, and staffed by uber left-wing editors, and her brand of journalistic honesty and integrity (she exposed the scandals swirling around Fast and Furious, the Benghazi disaster, and Obama's green energy fraud) didn't sit well when it was aimed at a political ally.

That hasn't stopped Attkisson from continuing her pursuit of the truth. One of her storylines has long been the link between vaccines and autism.

On her blog, Attkisson recently noted that another just-released study once again claimed that no such link exists; but, as she points out after a little digging, the study was done by a consulting firm called the Lewin Group, which lists major vaccine makers as clients.

Naturally, that conflict of interest – Attkisson calls it a "potential" conflict because she is inherently fair – was not listed in the paper that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Rather, the study's authors merely state "The Lewin Group operates with editorial independence."

Sure it does.

Forced to retract, apologize

"Conflicts of interest alone do not invalidate a study," Attkisson wrote. "But they serve as important context in the relentless effort by pharmaceutical interests and their government partners to discredit the many scientists and studies that have found possible vaccine-autism links."

Which brings us to vaccine shill Dr. Paul Offit, who "may be the most widely quoted promoter, defender and apologist for the vaccine industry today," according to TruthWiki.

In mainstream news story after story, Offit is routinely held up as an expert on vaccine safety. His position as the director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is regularly mentioned to solidify his credentials and expertise and make his opinion beyond reproach.

However, as Attkisson notes:

Somehow, it goes unreported that Offit has made millions (he won't disclose exactly how much) inventing a vaccine for Merck, which makes the MMR vaccine in question. Offit's rotavirus vaccine has, itself, been the subject of safety concerns. And his employment at Children's Hospital has been funded in part by $1.5 million given by Merck.

Science "not settled"

In addition, Attkisson notes that Offit was caught giving "false and disparaging" information regarding a report she filed while still at CBS News that exposed his financial ties to the same pharmaceutical industry he vigorously defends.

His phony statements were summarily corrected, but you get the picture.

Further, she notes, Offit and his book publisher were forced to settle a libel accusation^[PDF] by a vaccine safety advocate who accused the "expert" of fabricating a critical conversation in his book, Autism's False Prophets. He eventually agreed to make an apology, correct his book and make a donation to an autism charity.

However, none of these compromising facts matter much to the mainstream news media; Offit is still feted as an unbiased expert who is just trying to set the record straight.

Nevertheless, as Attkisson correctly points out, the supposed best medical experts of our time remain at a loss to explain the current generation's epidemic of autism. "To declare that the science is 'settled' and the debate 'over' is to defy the plain fact that many scientists worldwide are still sorting through it, and millions of people are still debating it."

Offit's not one of them.

As for disgraced University of Florida GMO shill Dr. Kevin Folta, you can read all about his paid Monsanto connections here at GMO.news.

Sources include:

SharylAttkisson.com

Newsbusters.org

Lewin.com

JAMA.JAMANetwork.com

GMO.news