/Nexus - 0804 - New Times Magazine/pages/0022/image.png)
Page Content (OCR)
MILKING THE TRUTH WITH GE HORMONES MILKING TRUTH THE WITH HORMONES Monsanto and Fox TV went to great lengths to deny the public's right to know about the effects of GE growth hormones on dairy cows and their milk. n the June-July 1998 issue (5/04), we ran a Global News item entitled "The Cancer Risks from rBGH in Milk". It reported on the health risks to cows treated with the genetically engineered bovine growth hormone rBGH (or bovine somatotropin, 1BST) to increase their milk production, and the potential dangers to humans from drinking milk from these cows. It also discussed the sacking in December 1997 by Fox TV of Jane Akre and Steve Wilson, award-winning journalists who had produced a series of reports exposing the prolific use of Monsanto-manufactured rBGH in Florida's dairy cows and the link between rBGH and cancer. Following representations by Monsanto's lawyers, Fox cancelled the series three days before the first broadcast scheduled for February 24, 1997, then tried to water it down, offering to pay the two reporters if they would leave the station and "keep mum" about what Fox had done to their work. Akre and Wilson twice refused big-money deals and filed a landmark lawsuit on April 2, 1998. They also survived three attempts by Fox to have their case summarily dismissed. BGH Bulletin reports that after a five-week trial and six hours of deliberation, which ended on August 18, 2000, a Florida state court jury unanimously determined that Fox "acted intentionally and deliberately to falsify or distort the plaintiffs’ news reporting on BGH". In that decision, the jury also found that Jane Akre's threat to blow the whistle to the FCC on Fox's misconduct was the sole reason for the termination. The jury awarded awarded US$425,000 in damages, making her eligible to apply for reimbursement for all court costs, expenses and legal fees. This is the first time journalists have used a whistle- blower law to seek legal redress for being sacked for refusing to distort the news. In April 2001, Jane Akre and Steve Wilson were honoured with a Goldman Environmental Prize, one of the world's most prestigious environmental awards, for their courageous efforts to expose the potential threat to public health from rBGH. The following audio-video script contains parts I and II of the four-part "Reporters' Version" (Version 29, lawsuit Exhibit R), which is the story Akre and Wilson wanted to tell but which Fox TV would never broadcast. The "Fox-mandated Version" of the script (Version 28, lawsuit Exhibit Q) contains comments from the journalists, detailing the lies, distortions and slanting of the story to which Steve and Jane consistently objected. These comments are interspersed through the Reporters’ Version below in sections of bold type. The full text of both versions is available at the BGH Bulletin website, www.foxBGHsuit.com — Editor PART I Sound: (Milk being poured into glass) Narration 1: Nature's most nearly perfect food—that's how most of us have always thought of milk...wholesome, nutritious and pure, just like it says on some of the trucks that deliver it. But down on the farm where most of us never see? Some Florida farmers have been quietly squeezing more cash from their cows by injecting them with an artifi- cial growth hormone so they'll produce more milk than nature intended. Thurman Hatten, Florida Dairy Farmer: Yes, I would say people in Florida are using it. Jane Akre, Reporter: And you yourself? Hatten: Aah... © by Jane Akre & Steve Wilson From the BGH Bulletin website www.foxBGHsuit.com From the BGH Bulletin website www.foxBGHsuit.com JUNE — JULY 2001 NEXUS = 21 www.nexusmagazine.com