More fake news.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...=.d3c1c0fab071
The Trump administration’s top environmental official met privately with the chief executive of Dow Chemical shortly before reversing his agency’s push to ban a widely used pesticide after health studies showed it can harm children’s brains, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt’s schedule shows he met with Dow CEO Andrew Liveris on March 9 for about a half hour at a Houston hotel. Both men were featured speakers at an energy industry conference.
Twenty days later Pruitt announced his decision to deny a petition to ban Dow’s chlorpyrifos pesticide from being sprayed on food, despite a review by his agency’s scientists that concluded ingesting even minuscule amounts of the chemical can interfere with the brain development of fetuses and infants.
So, the AP apparently tried to connect the dots between an alleged meeting Pruitt and Dow, and a decision to reverse a chemical ban. So, why is this fake news?
Well, AP reported the story based on an examination of a published schedule. Problematic because:
- the meeting never happened.
- the AP never bothered to call anyone to confirm the meeting, whether it even happened.
- the AP never bothered to ask anyone within the EPA what might have been discussed (or in this case, not discussed).
- Oh, and by the way, the story is still up on WaPo, even though the AP has already issued a retraction:
https://apnews.com/2350d7be5e24469ab445089bf663cdcb
In a story June 27, The Associated Press, relying on schedules provided by the Environmental Protection Agency, reported erroneously that EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt met with Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris for about a half-hour at a Houston hotel. A spokeswoman for the EPA says the meeting listed on the schedule was canceled, though Pruitt and Liveris did have a “brief introduction in passing.”
Oh, and about that chemical? The EPA is still evaluating, and the science is not conclusive. From
CNN (being nice to them, since they're being picked on lately):
n April 2016, a scientific advisory panel of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, which is administered by the EPA, expressed concerns regarding data to support this proposal to ban the pesticide.
"I agree very much with the scientific advisory panel," said Dr. William Banner, president of the American Association of Poison Control Centers. He added that what the studies have in common is that "they did not show any causal link. What they showed was an association."
Banner said the study was not conducted in a way to rule out other factors that might have influenced the participants' development, including their gestational age at birth and their exposure to environmental stress.
Lazy journalism? An active desire to push out false info? All of the above?