Utter & Total Propaganda by JunkScience.com ... Last implant gasp?

[Guest guest]

Here is the ultimate in Corporate Propaganda by Junk Journalist &

Corporate Lobbyist, PR Junk (sound) Science (ACSH.org, CEI, Cato,

AEI and quackwatch.com) seller Milloy.

I had to chuckle a bit ... Milloy's 'insider networks' have also

been accusing me lately, like Dr. Zuckerman here, of 'laundering

money' as well!

{They have also been lying that I ripped off a 13 year old Costa

Rican semi-blind and deaf angel friend of mine, so desperate are

they to harm any of us speaking out on the dangers of their client

products. { For the facts: www.CostaRicaTreasures.com/Karina.htm }

Unfortunately for true science, the PR colossus Burson Marsteller

spawned the " Junk Science " Propaganda Campaign in the early 90's

amalgamating the vast PR dollars of Exxon, Dow Chemical, Monsanto,

and other corporate giants. More industries (cell

phone, food industry, vaccination, etc. have added their millions to

the PR pool.)

Over a decade ago, Milloy emblazoned some of his sponsors 'causes'

on his mug ... falsely and egotistically claiming to have 'debunked'

the harm of global warming, second hand smoke and silicone breast

implants. http://www.junkscience.com/mug.htm

A few months ago, using the same firey, wild-eyed highly funded

ranting, Milloy had to backtrack and even (semi) apologize the a

group of parents who believe their children were harmed by

vaccinations ... so united were they in their protests.

We can do it too.

To respond:

http://washingtontimes.com/contact-us/

please read the requirements for being published

The Washington Times

http://washingtontimes.com/commentary/20050820-102457-9502r.htm

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Last implant gasp?

By Milloy

Published August 21, 2005

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Silicone breast implants just moved a step closer to federal

regulators' approval. That's bad news for personal injury lawyers

involved in implant litigation. And they appear to be getting pretty

desperate.

The Food and Drug Administration issued an " approvable " letter

to silicone breast implant (SBI) manufacturer Mentor Corp. July 28.

The letter does not yet mean SBIs may be marketed. But it does mean

Mentor's SBIs are approvable under FDA negotiable conditions.

The conditions may require plastic surgeons to have special

training, patients to receive an education and informed consent

materials, establishing a patient registry and continued collection

of data on the devices.

The " approvable " letter is consistent with the recommendations

of an FDA expert panel convened in April. SBI opponents aren't happy

and are throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the FDA and

Mentor.

The usual anti-implant front groups -- including organizations

like the Command Trust Network, National Organization for Women and

Public Citizen -- are dredging up an FDA criminal investigation of

Mentor closed in 2002 with no wrongdoing found. Unhappy with the

agency's investigation, the anti-implanters want Congress to

investigate the FDA too.

At an anti-implanter news conference this week, NOW President

Kim Gandy said of the FDA commissioner, " Lester Crawford is a

veterinarian, but at the FDA he's treating women like dogs. " This

trashing of FDA apparently signals the end of any implanters' plans

for constructive engagement.

Scientific study after scientific study, and expert panel after

expert panel gave SBIs a clean bill of health. If approved by the

FDA, SBIs would merely be an option available to women who want

them. What could possibly drive the anti-implanters to such furious

attacks on the FDA and Mentor?

The answer seems to be personal injury lawyers who well

understand FDA approval of SBIs would finally expose their

multibillion-dollar litigation against previous SBI manufacturers as

nothing more than junk science-fueled, highway robbery. Consider

just some of the connections between the lawyers and the anti-

implant activists.

The Command Trust Network, the original anti-implant activist

organization, is led by Sybil Niden Goldrich, who once responded in

a television interview to a question about science not supporting

anti-implant hysteria: " The science? The devil with science. It

doesn't matter any more. " Command Trust's other founding member,

Kathleen Anneken, quit years ago, noting with disgust its PR firm

(Fenton Communications) worked " more for the lawyers than they do

for us. "

In a 1997 deposition, Ms. Goldrich admitted Command Trust never

got a bill from Fenton. Instead, the bills went to the Women's

Institute for Silicone Education and Research, on whose board Ms.

Goldrich served along with Rick Laminack of O'Quinn & Laminack -- a

prominent personal injury law firm that has made tens of millions of

dollars from SBI litigation. The Fenton Web site still lists O'Quinn

& Laminack as a client.

Zuckerman, a vocal anti-implant activist who is president

of the National Research Center for Women & Families has also run

around Washington for years scaring anyone who will listen about

SBIs. Past tax returns for Ms. Zuckerman's group indicate it has

been funded mostly by the Tides Foundation, a mysterious entity that

seems to be financial laundromat for left-leaning donors, possibly

including trial lawyers. Who is the Tides Foundation's PR firm?

Fenton, of course.

Then there's the ostensibly Hollywood-based group called In The

Know, supposedly led by actress McDonough ( " The Waltons " ). In

The Know recently took out full-page ads attacking SBI safety in

Capitol Hill newspapers like Roll Call and the Congress Daily. In

The Know's Web site is registered to Suzanne , now of

Strategies, a D.C.-based PR firm. Ms. 's former employer was

Fenton Communications.

In addition to using activists to recreate SBI hysteria, the

trial lawyers also are going after the legal foundation that has

significantly reduced the likelihood junk science will make it into

a courtroom -- the 1993 Supreme Court decision in Daubert v. Merrell

Dow Pharmaceuticals. A group of activist-researchers have formed

something called the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public

Policy. Its purpose is to find a strategy for circumventing Daubert.

The Project is funded by something called the Common Benefit

Trust, an expense account originally set up to compensate SBI

plaintiff lawyers for legitimate services and expenses incurred in

connection with SBI litigation. But the Common Benefit Trust has

also sponsored newspaper ads depicting SBIs as ticking time bombs.

To overlook this seeming misappropriation of Common Benefit Trust

monies to fund anti-implant activities, guess who's a trustee?

Command Trust's Sybil Niden Goldrich.

In the 1990s, personal injury lawyers asked NOW to get involved

in the SBI litigation. So it should be no surprise NOW is part of

the attack on the FDA and Mentor, as is the personal injury lawyer-

loving Naderite group Public Citizen.

Almost three years ago, I reported good news for breast cancer

survivors and other women who want SBIs: " Silicone breast implants

are coming back. " After watching the SBI saga unfold over the years,

the return's best part is the richly deserved permanent black eye it

will give unscrupulous SBI lawyers.

Milloy publishes JunkScience.com and CSRwatch.com, is

adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, and is author of " Junk

Science Judo: Self-defense Against Health Scares and Scams " (Cato

Institute, 2001).

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www.BreastImplantAwareness.org