Will the NJ cover this?
Looks like our Drug Buddies up on 202 were pushing some high grade stuff
The integrity of the Nobel prize was called into question last night after it emerged that a member of the jury also sat on the board of a pharmaceuticals giant that benefited from the award of this year’s prize for medicine.
Prosecutors were studying whether AstraZeneca, the London-based multi-national pharmaceutical company, could have exerted undue influence on the award.
The joint winner of this year’s Nobel Prize for Medicine, Harald zur Hausen, was recognised for his work on the human papilloma virus (HPV), which can lead to cervical cancer. AstraZeneca has a stake in two lucrative vaccines against the virus
I’m not going to lie, I love that fact that we have two handfuls of huge fortune 500 companies right in our backyard and the NJ never seems to be able to break a story about any malfeasance done by them. I wonder if that is one of the selling points the governors give.
“Hey, listen” (looks around to see if anyone is watching) “Our press is horrendous, the people in this state couldn’t blow a whistle if it was surgically attached to their lips. You are more than safe here”
You’d think with all the people in this area, someone would leak something to someone about something somewhere somehow.
AZ got lots of state money, can’t we put Tom Wagner on the case to see if any of it was misused?
(I crack myself up).
Or it could just be that nobody from the U.S. was involved in the lobbying…
“You’d think with all the people in this area, someone would leak something to someone about something somewhere somehow.”
You would think that, wouldn’t you?
Few things are actually “leaked” to the media these days. Companies – especially big corporations – keep a tight lock on e-mail and a watch on phones, and even use things such as the “Canary Trap” (see Tom Clancy’s early Jack Ryan novels for a description) to catch leakers. (See entry: Spy scandal, Hewlett-Packard.)
At high-powered corporations such as DuPont and AZ, the fear may actually be less about leaks to the media than disclosure of business secrets and R&D information that could cost the company a bundle.
But the bottom line is the same: When people don’t want to lose their jobs, they toe the line and tolerate things they wouldn’t ordinarily do. And if AZ did do something like this, the information about who did what when is probably so closely held that the higher-ups would instantly know who tattled. The courageous secretary would be caught and fired in a minute.
As for the power of the media, I have a few friends who work at TNJ, and they’ve told me about people who offer “news tips.” They call up and leave anonymous messages, but with so little detail that they’re worthless – i.e., “You really outta look into So-and-So, he’s done things you wouldn’t believe.” Well, gee thanks… I’ll get right on that.
very true….howevryoupronounceyourname, very true
And you’ve got so much room to talk!
It’s “ptthbbt.” You pronounce it by sticking your tongue out a half-inch, closing your lips around it and blowing air from your mouth. The emphasis is on the flying spittle.