'Experts' Too Often Feeding From Industry Troughs

Media consumers, beware: that assertive, well-versed, trustworthy "expert" may in fact be an industry shill, Shannon Brownlee and Jeanne Lenzer write on Slate. Journalists across the board, and even some radio hosts, are failing to disclose financial ties to various industries—drug companies being a prime example—fudging the line between considered opinion and paid advocacy.

Take, for instance, public-radio mainstay The Infinite Mind, which recently aired an episode on the connection between antidepressants and suicide; apparently, all four participants, including the host, have big pharma money in their pockets, from Lilly, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, and others. No shock, the writes point out, that all thought links between antidepressant drugs and killing oneself were exaggerated. (More drug companies stories.)