Born with a Junk Food Deficiency: How Flaks, Quacks, and Hacks Pimp the Public Health, by Martha Rosenberg

Amherst, NY—Cynthia Gorney, a New York Times magazine contributor and University of California- Berkeley journalism professor admits she omitted pharmaceutical-industry links of five sources in her 2010 New York Times magazine article, “The Estrogen Dilemma.”

The errors are cited in Born with a Junk Food Deficiency: How Flaks, Quacks, and Hacks Pimp the Public Health, by Martha Rosenberg, published by Prometheus Books in April 2012. The health-policy book cites the pharmaceutical industry’s hidden role in crafting health messages to the general public.

Gorney admitted the errors in a written statement read by Stephanie Beasley, an editor at FDA Week, who interviewed Rosenberg on Book TV’s After Words. Gorney cites disorganization and deadline pressures for neglecting to report the pharmaceutical-industry ties. Rosenberg says during the Book TV appearance, which aired this past weekend that she wrote New York Times editors at least three times about the errors and never got a response. 

The five sources in the New York Times magazine article with undisclosed pharmaceutical ties are Claudio Soares, MD; Louann Brizendine, MD; Roberta Diaz Brinton, PhD; Sanjay Asthana, MD; and Thomas Clarkson, DVM.

The omissions are mentioned in a chapter in Born with a Junk Food Deficiency called “Weapons of Hormonal Therapy,” which details how the pharmaceutical industry has hidden the dangers of hormone therapy while extolling its benefits. A 2002 government study found hormone therapy increases the risk of breast cancer by 26 percent, heart attacks by 29 percent, and stroke by 41 percent, and it doubles the risk of blood clots.

Rosenberg is a freelance writer contributing to the San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, andConsumers Digest. In addition, she is a regular health columnist on the Huffington Post, AlterNet, CounterPunch, BuzzFlash, Foodconsumer, NewsBlaze,  and the Epoch Times.

To request a copy of Born With a Junk Food Deficiency or to schedule an interview with author Martha Rosenberg, contact Lisa Michalski at 800-853-7545 or Lmichalski@prometheusbooks.com. For air times or to watch the episode online, click here.