This story originally ran in The Guardian on August 9, 2019
By Carey Gillam
As a journalist who has covered corporate America for more than 30 years, very little shocks me about the propaganda tactics companies often deploy. I know the pressure companies can and do bring to bear when trying to effect positive coverage and limit reporting they deem negative about their business practices and products.
But when I recently received close to 50 pages of internal Monsanto communications about the company’s plans to target me and my reputation, I was shocked.
I knew the company did not like the fact that in my 21 years of reporting on the agrochemical industry – mostly for Reuters – I wrote stories that quoted skeptics as well as fans of Monsanto’s genetically engineered seeds. I knew the company didn’t like me reporting about growing unease in the scientific community regarding research that connected Monsanto herbicides to human and environmental health problems. And I knew the company did not welcome the 2017 release of my book, Whitewash – The Story of a Weed Killer, Cancer and the Corruption of Science, which revealed the company’s actions to suppress and manipulate the science surrounding its herbicide business.
But I never dreamed I would warrant my own Monsanto action plan…
READ MORE:
- Full story in The Guardian: “I’m a journalist: Monsanto built a step-by-step strategy to destroy my reputation.”
- See the documents revealing Monsanto’s campaign to discredit Gillam’s work and an investigation by U.S. Right to Know into the company’s business practices.
Carey Gillam is research director of U.S. Right to Know, a nonprofit research group that investigates the food industry. Gillam is former national correspondent for Reuters where she spent 17 years covering agribusiness, and she is a regular columnist at The Guardian.
