Journal-Sentinel on BPA: Ideology, Ambition Trump Science

Liberal reporters love the narrative in which the chemical industry is poisoning the American people, and the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has adopted that narrative with regard to bisphenol A (BPA.

Unfortunately, the sound science is radically different from what the paper has said.

A smackdown has been administered to the Journal-Sentinel by no less an outlet than the very liberal Huffington Post.

One key graph:

“[Journal-Sentinel editor] Stanley appears to have thrown one of his reporters under the bus to protect what he believes is the sanctity of those journalism awards,” adds SPJ [Society of Professional Journalists] ethicist Smith. “He even says he’s quoting from the acknowledgments section of the German report, which makes it seem as if his columnist was sloppy for not alerting readers to the alleged biases of the scientists, when actually he was the biased one.” The editor, he suggests, appears heavily invested in the controversial endocrine disruptor hypothesis, which is gradually losing favor in the international science community. “If the Journal Sentinel was really committed to truth, it would welcome new data and just report factually on developments. That’s the way science and journalism should work. It seems the editor was more committed to presenting his version of the truth.”