No person today would grant equal time to the Surgeon General and a Tobacco Lobbyist in a debate about the dangers of smoking. For 50 years, Big Tobacco — one of Berman’s first clients — was allowed to play point/counterpoint with mainstream scientists. [Breathing other people's smoke is known as passive smoking or second-hand smoking] As a society, we’ve accepted the injurious effects of smoking and moved on. Today, with Climate Change and Air Pollution, the same can’t be said. We’re still allowing the same old debate to continue on cable news, in newspapers, in Op-ed pages. And our news outlets still cover the issue in terms one opinion versus another, not as fact vs. fiction. Read More |
