Bill Moyers Responds to Chemical
Industry Attack on Investigative Report
Based On Confidential Industry
Documents
'TRADE SECRETS' Premieres on PBS on March 26 From 9-11
P.M.
NEW YORK, March 23 /PRNewswire/ -- ``TRADE SECRETS: A Moyers
Report'' is a
two-hour program that lays out an historical record of chemical
industry
behavior and devotes 30 minutes, 25% of the broadcast, to a panel
discussion
of issues such as what scientists know about the health effects
of
chemicals, how fully chemicals are tested before they come to
market,
worker safety and whether the public is fully informed about
chemicals and
their impact on
personal health.
The portion of the
program that lays out the historical record is based on
the industry's own
words, preserved in black and white in confidential
industry documents that
the public was never supposed to see.
The panel discussion, which will be
produced live-to-tape the afternoon of
the program premiere, includes two
representatives of the chemical industry,
a representative of the public
health sector, and a representative of an
environmental
organization.
The chemical industry's trade association, the American
Chemistry Council,
has begun a campaign to discredit ``TRADE SECRETS'' before
it is broadcast
by
attacking Bill Moyers' professionalism as a journalist
and the balance,
accuracy and fairness of the program.
Following is a
statement by Bill Moyers to industry attacks, as well as a Q
&
A
rebuttal to issues the chemical industry has raised in the
media:
Statement by Bill Moyers
``As usual, the chemical industry
is misleading the American people and the
press. The American Chemistry
Council has known that we designed the
broadcast to include industry
representatives. Weeks ago we even provided
the
industry with the very
questions to be discussed on the broadcast. When
Terry
Yosie, the industry
spokesman, told me that the industry wants to address
issues of worker and
product safety and the benefits to society of
chemicals,
I agreed. Mr.
Yosie won't tell you that, because Mr. Yosie is trying to
defend the industry
against the indefensible record in its own documents.
I consider myself
in good company to be attacked by the industry that tried
to smear Rachel
Carson when she published ``Silent Spring.'' As its own
documents reveal,
this is the industry that kept from its workers the truth
about what was
making them sick; that opposes the right of citizens to know
what is
polluting their communities; that manipulated its own science to
hide
the
hazards of chemicals; that spent millions of dollars to buy
political
influence, carve loopholes in environmental law, and create a
regulatory
system that it controls. The people who watch 'TRADE SECRETS' will
decide
for
themselves who is guilty of
malpractice.``
Q & A about "TRADE SECRETS"
Q. Why
didn't Bill Moyers interview representatives of the
chemical
industry for "TRADE
SECRETS"?
-- He does include industry
representatives, in a format that
gives
them
an unedited
opportunity to present their point of view. Half
an
hour,
which is 25% of
the program, is devoted to a discussion of
issues
raised by facts in
the internal industry documents that are
the
focus
of the first
portion of the program.
-- This discussion
provides equal time to chemical
industry
representatives as
well as others with differing
viewpoints
representing the
public health sector and
environmental
organizations.
-- In the
discussion, the industry is invited to offer opinions on
such
issues as their
assessment of the present state of regulation,
the
scientific basis for
their confidence that chemicals absorbed
by
human
beings have no
health consequences in the short term or the
long
term,
and their
plans for the future to ensure that chemicals
they
manufacture pose no
threat to the public.
Q. Why weren't
industry representatives interviewed for the
documentary
portion of
the program?
-- The documentary portion of
this program lays out historical
evidence
about the
chemical industry contained in their internal
industry
documents spanning
a period of almost 50 years.
-- These
internal industry documents are a fact. They exist. They
are
not
a matter of
opinion or a point of view. The documents state what
the
industry knew, when
they knew it and what they decided to do.
-- In the documentary portion of the program, the chemical industry
is
represented by these
documents, which describe the
industry's
decisions -- in
their own words in black and white and on paper
--
about how they will
behave.
-- The interviews in this portion
of the program focus on
determining
if
the
information contained in the chemical industry's documents
was
revealed at the time to
company employees, governmental
regulators,
citizens
concerned about environmental pollution, or the
general
public.
Q. The chemical industry has
stated "TRADE SECRETS" can not
be
balanced,
accurate or
fair because they were not given the opportunity
to
present their side of the
story.
-- Bill Moyers has a different
view. Regarding accuracy, every fact
in
"TRADE SECRETS" has been
scrupulously sourced. There is no
question
of
accuracy in
the presentation of the documents because we have
made
them available for all
to see. The viewer doesn't have to wonder
if
excerpts from these
internal documents were perhaps unfairly
taken
out
of context
during the program. The full text of every
document
referenced in
"TRADE SECRETS" will be available for all to read
on
the
"TRADE SECRETS"
Web site on PBS.org. Nothing could be more
fair.
-- The program is balanced in
broadly framing the chemical
industry.
The
program
plainly states that chemicals have improved many aspects
of
our contemporary
lifestyle. The documentary does not question
the
positive aspects of the
chemical revolution of the last fifty
years,
and acknowledges
them.
-- As the documents reveal, the
chemical industry has invested
millions
of dollars
trying to dominate public perception as well as
the
regulatory process. This
program is making information available
to
the public that has been
deliberately and consciously
withheld.
Attacking the
journalism in "TRADE SECRETS" is a strategy
to
discredit
the content
so that their own viewpoint can dominate
public
perception.
Additional information on ``TRADE SECRETS'' is available
on PBS PressRoom at
pbs.org/pressroom.
SOURCE: Kelly & Salerno
Communications
This list is managed by Environmental Research
Foundation. Please send all
address changes to
maria@rachel.org NOT to
dioxin@rachel.org.
_________________________________________________________________
Get
your FREE download of MSN Explorer at
http://explorer.msn.com