PepsiCo sparks controversy on ScienceBlogs

Jul. 7th, 2010 by Pia Christensen
Filed under: Conflicts of interest, Health journalism 

A firestorm has erupted over at ScienceBlogs over its decision to allow PepsiCo to have a blog, called Food Frontiers, on its site.

In a post this morning, the “ScienceBlogs Overlords” say they didn’t do a good job communicating “what these sponsored blogs are for, give a proper explanation of what our relationship to Food Frontiers was going to be, or even properly explain what Food Frontiers is.”

They have added language that makes clear that what appears on the Food Frontier blog is written by PepsiCo’s scientists and that posts will include the scientists’ affiliation and conflicts of interest.

Sharon Astyk is taking a hiatus from the site “Until Science Blogs decides whether it wants to be a platform for science writers or a platform for corporations to buy credibility.”

The blogger known as Scicurious is taking some time to think over the situation and says she is “more than a bit uncomfortable.” Update: Scicurious has decided to leave ScienceBlogs.

Journalist and author David Dobbs is “dismayed” by the decision and has written a more lengthy post about the problems. He likens it to having Pfizer run continuing medical education and is moving his blog to Neuron Culture, and considering other venues.

A blogger and scientist who goes by GrrlScientist writes a strong post about credibility and the damage a PepsiCo-written blog will do to everyone associated with ScienceBlogs.

Science writer Brian Switek, who says he is “dumbfounded” over the move, points out that “A newspaper or magazine would not allow PepsiCo to write articles about global health or nutrition.” His blog also will be on hiatus. Update: Switek has decided to quit blogging at ScienceBlogs. He says he will keep blogging elsewhere.

For more on the controversy, see posts from PalMD, Abel, Isis, Janet, Zuska, Blake, Christie, Sharon, Jason, Greg, Orac, PZ, Mark, James H., and Alex Wild.

Update

Maryn McKenna, an AHCJ board member as well as author and journalist, weighs in on her blog on the ScienceBlogs site.  She calls the move “spectacularly crass, naive, and dumb.”

Update (July 8)

ScienceBlogs reverses course, evicts Pepsi blog

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Comments

7 Comments on PepsiCo sparks controversy on ScienceBlogs

  1. PalMD on Wed, 7th Jul 2010 7:45 pm

    2. Thanks for the coverage. This is a fascinating, if uncomfortable, look at how new media need evaluate how they will regard ethics.

  2. ScienceBlogs reverses course, evicts Pepsi blog : Covering Health on Thu, 8th Jul 2010 9:56 am

    3. [...] PZ Myers of the Pharyngula blog on ScienceBlogs reports that Seed CEO and editor-in-chief Adam Bly has sent a letter to its bloggers saying that the PepsiCo blog that caused a number of high-profile bloggers to flee the site has been removed. [...]

  3. Best Practices on Fri, 9th Jul 2010 12:50 am

    4. Did Pepsi completely embarrass itself or should it be given a second chance?

    Read: Fifth Estate Best Practices and Democracy on opensalon dot com

    Remember the Pepsi Refresh campaign is doing some good. Maybe continued dialogue will as well.

  4. Cheers and Regards for the Week of July 12, 2010 - The Bureau Chiefs on Mon, 12th Jul 2010 8:05 am

    5. [...] to a group of bloggers at ScienceBlogs for taking a stand against having their work put on the same level as a corporate advertising blog. A number of [...]

  5. Getting creative with DIY publicity! « Wonder Bugs: A Synthetic Biology Book (in Progress) on Wed, 14th Jul 2010 12:11 pm

    6. [...] is my approach: after hearing about the chaos over at major science writers’ community ScienceBlogs, I realized that I might have something [...]

  6. Scienceblogs, and when bloggers attack : Covering Health on Thu, 2nd Sep 2010 2:31 pm

    7. [...] Next Web’s Simon Owens tries to put the recent ScienceBlogs / PepsiCo quagmire into the larger context of the long, proud history bloggers have of biting the hand that [...]

  7. Exploring ethics, standards in science blogging : Covering Health on Mon, 24th Jan 2011 2:42 pm

    8. [...] readers of Covering Health will remember last year’s ScienceBlogs controversy as well as health journalist Mary Knudson’s decision to not blog for U.S. News [...]

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