Lifting The Veil Of Secrecy - lobbyist group Guest Choice Network - Brief Article

Nutrition Action Healthletter, Nov, 2000

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (publisher of Nutrition Action Healthletter) is a "nanny" organization that "huddled with federal officials to discuss imposing mandatory menu warning labels, levying `Twinkie' taxes on high-caloric foods, launching media campaigns to `denormalize' popular restaurant foods, and mandating food and beverage marketing restrictions." Says who? An organization called the Guest Choice Network, according to a news item last May in the Washington Times. The news account described the network as a group that "aims to protect consumer choices."

In fact, the Guest Choice Network is a lobbying coalition of more than 30,000 restaurant and tavern owners.

It happens all the time. A newspaper quotes a "consumer" group that turns out to be an industry front. Or a TV show interviews a researcher without revealing that his or her work has been funded by the egg industry, salt industry, or some other outfit with a stake in the results.

It's not that journalists are in cahoots with industry groups. It's just that they rarely ask the people they interview about potential conflicts of interest.

Lifting the veil of secrecy is a major goal of CSPI's new "Integrity in Science" project, which is directed by attorney Ronald Collins. To kick off the project, CSPI is posting on its Web site information about the financial links of hundreds of academics and non-profit organizations to business interests.

The idea is to encourage journalists and government officials to be more sensitive to potential conflicts of interest. That's one way to have a more-informed public, better government policies, and a safer environment and food supply.

For more information online: www.cspinet.org/integrity.