Pressure mounts on biotech industry shill and chemical pesticide pusher Jon Entine to disclose his financial ties

Friday, March 25, 2016 by: J. D. Heyes
Tags: Jon Entine, financial ties, biotech industry shill

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(NaturalNews) A public interest watchdog group that focuses on ensuring truth and transparency in America's food system, is calling on a noted corporate Big Food and GMO defender to publicly reveal any sources of funding he receives.

U.S. Right To Know (USRTK), in a recent press release, said that Jon Entine (see his TruthWiki entry here), a top chemical industry PR operative who has churned out scores of articles in defense of various corporate interests, attacked the Columbia School of Journalism in a March 1 New York Post column, claiming it "smeared Exxon," engaged in "advocacy journalism," and hired "an activist" to run the school.

That latest assault lead USRTK to call on Entine to reveal fully any and all funding he receives, and what ties he has to the industries he so vociferously defends in his writings.

"Who is funding Jon Entine and the Genetic Literacy Project?" asked Gary Ruskin, co-director of U.S. Right to Know. "Will Jon Entine disclose his funders? If not, what is he hiding?"

The USRTK press release noted further:

"In his New York Post article ... Entine attacks award-winning journalist Susanne Rust, who is an investigative editor at the Columbia Journalism School. Entine fails to mention that Rust and co-author Meg Kissinger exposed undisclosed industry ties of Entine's group STATS in a 2009 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article, which reported that 'STATS claims to be independent and nonpartisan. But a review of its financial reports shows it is a branch of the Center for Media and Public Affairs. That group was paid by the tobacco industry to monitor news stories about the dangers of tobacco.'"

BioAg and corporate shill

The press release also noted that the Genetic Literacy Project previously declared that is is "affiliated with the non-profit Statistical Assessment Service," or STATS. But the Genetic Literacy Project has subsequently removed any reference to STATS from its website, the watchdog group said, adding that Entine's Post byline previously referred to him as "a senior fellow at STATS." Also, Entine has referred to STATS as "the organization that houses the Genetic Literacy Project, where I work."

"Entine is executive director of the agrichemical industry front group Genetic Literacy Project, a group with unknown funding that regularly attacks activists, journalists and scientists who raise concerns about the health and environmental risks of genetically engineered foods and pesticides," the USRTK press release noted.

TruthWiki has a wealth of documentation regarding Entine's activities in defending corporate interests, with a particular emphasis on fossil fuels, biochemicals, bioengineering and genetically modified organisms:

"Jon Entine is a corporate propagandist and pseudo-journalist who utilizes his media savvy to promote the opinions and positions of chemical corporations, by posing as an independent journalist. Entine has multiple, documented ties to biotech companies Monsanto and Syngenta, and plays a key propaganda role via another industry front group known as the American Council on Science and Health, 1 a thinly-veiled corporate front group that Sourcewatch describes as holding 'a generally apologetic stance regarding virtually every other health and environmental hazard produced by modern industry, accepting corporate funding from Coca-Cola, Kellogg, General Mills, Pepsico, and the American Beverage Association, among others.'"

History of violence

TruthWiki further notes that Entine, "knowingly and repeatedly publishes false and fictitious information" in mainstream media outlets such as Forbes.com and, of course, the New York Post. TruthWiki says that Entine takes a sort of "hit man" approach to singling out individuals, most especially GMO critics, for accusations and abuse, "often calling them names or implying they are sociopaths or a danger to society."

USRTK, in its press release, said that Entine is an influential spokesman for the agrichemical industry as well. Freedom of Information Act requests filed by the watchdog revealed his ties to New York Times reporter Amy Harmon, Washington Post food reporter Tamar Haspel, and journalist Keith Kloor, who writes favorably about GMOs.

Entine's violent past was also revealed by NaturalNews editor Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, in a series of exposes in November 2014, citing court documents stating that he allegedly traumatized his daughter and physically attacked his wife.

Sources:

USRTK.org

TruthWiki.org

NaturalNews.com