Speaking of the Hudson Institute, who are they?
Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the indicted former Chief of Staff of Vice President Dick Cheney, found himself a new home at the Hudson Institute. But at the same time Michael Fumento, a longtime Hudson Institute "Senior Fellow", became the latest right wing 'scholar' outed for being payed by corporations for writing columns without disclosing that fact.
BusinessWeek Online's revealed that Fumento had been fired by SHNS for not disclosing he had taken payments in 1999 from agribusiness giant Monsanto. SHNS Editor and General Manager Peter Copeland said that Fumento "did not tell SHNS editors, and therefore we did not tell our readers, that in 1999 Hudson received a $60,000 grant from Monsanto" Copeland added: "Our policy is that he should have disclosed that information. We apologize to our readers. ... The Jan. 5 column by Michael Fumento about new biotechnology products from Monsanto should have included more information. We believe the column should have disclosed a $60,000 grant from Monsanto that Fumento received in 1999 for a book about biotechnology. Fumento's column will no longer be distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, but is available from Michael Fumento..."
When BusinessWeek Online's Eamon Javers asked Fumento about the payments, Fumento described himself as "extremely pro-biotech." According to Javers, Fumento "said that he solicited several agribusiness companies to finance his book, which was published by Encounter Books (note: Encounter is essentially a project of the Bradley Foundation, another right-wing front). 'I went after everybody, I've got to be honest,' Fumento says of his fund-raising effort. 'I told them that if I tell the truth in this book, the biotech industry is going to look really good, and you should contribute.'" Fumento also allowed that the grant from Monsanto went from the company to the Hudson Institute and was aimed at supporting his work. While part of it went to the Institute's overhead, "most of it" was earmarked for his salary.
Between 1987 and 2003 the Hudson Institute received nearly $15 million from a several right wing foundations which includes the Carthage Foundation, Sarah Scaife Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, and the John M. Olin Foundation.
The Hudson Institute is the same special interest advocacy group that was hired by the tobacco lobby decades ago to write and publish articles that would create confusion over the negative health care effects of cigarette smoking. Now, the Hudson Institute employs the same strategy of public misinformation to discredit affordable generic medicines in order to increase the sale of patented drugs to the benefit the US pharmaceutical industry. Recent tobacco-related litigation has uncovered key insider documents detailing the interaction and close relationship between the tobacco industry and US policy research/advocacy organizations. As early as 1971, the Philip Morris Corporation hired the Hudson Institute to create and promote "junk science" in an attempt to "debunk" the negative health effects of tobacco. One recently uncovered hand written document discussed strategies for fending off critics, including using "politicized science" designed to "create doubt in the eyes of the public -- in science; in politics; in risks," of cigarette smoking. A Hudson Institute report was one of two reports that were recommended for commissioning in the tobacco industry's secret document to promote it junk science. For decades, joint projects between Philip Morris and the Hudson Institute were often made-to-order. Characterized as "scientific lobbying", the Hudson Institutes's strategic model of influencing public policy is intended to "communicate with scientists," to "work the 'walls' of scientific meetings," and to "influence protocols of new research." The special interest group is even known to have used this same strategy on behalf of the agri-chemical lobby (another major funder of the Institute) to discredit the safety of organic food... Since 2000, the Hudson Institutes' Annual Reports show major funding from pharmaceutical corporations including Eli Lilly, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and the powerful lobby group, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhARMA). Other large financial supporters ... have included major oil and agro-chemical corporations and ultra-right-wing family foundations. The Hudson Institute's program areas and policy initiatives overlap with its corporate donors' financial interests.
According to IRS forms, the Institute's Senior Fellows are paid between $100,000 - $200,000 for their "pseudo scientific" research and advocacy.