The Biz: Right-Wing Think Tanks Discover Non-Profit Investigative Journalism

Is non-profit investigative journalism the panacea it's sometimes said to be? The Nation Institute's Esther Kaplan rightly questions this conclusion in this piece noting the rise of investigative journalism funded by right-wing think tanks. Kaplan reports that one journalist involved for a while in such a project quit after realizing the work involved "hatchet journalism," not reporting in the public interest.

Investigations: Cellphone Study's Little-Noticed Appendices Reveal Cancer Links

Are cellphones safe or not? A major study of 13,000 people was widely interpreted as being "inconclusive" on links between cellphone use and cancer. However, this analysis by Trent University professor Magda Havas, who specializes in electromagnetic pollution, says the study actually did find some disturbing connections with cancer, which went largely unreported in the media coverage.

She cites the study's two little-noticed appendices that reveal an 84-percent increased risk of meningiomas for those who used digital phones for 1,640 hours or more and a 343-percent increased risk for those used both digital and analogue cellphones or if the type of phone used was unknown. As well, the study found those who used a cellphone for two to four years had a 68-percent increased risk of developing gliomas versus those who had used a cellphone for under two years. As well, there was an 118-percent increased risk for those who used a cellphone for 10 or more years.

These findings occurred, Havas writes, despite the fact that the study's methodology was biased to minimize any adverse effects from cell use. See here for the full Interphone study. (Click Supplementary Data for the two appendices that Havas cites.) The study was produced by the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer with funds from cellphone makers.

For more info, see this GQ investigation of various scientific studies showing other health impacts from cellphone use and how government regulators have so far shielded cellphone makers, refusing to fund independent research into health impacts or to protect the public.

TAGS: health, cellphone

Awards: 2010 Pulitzers

Congratulations to the 2010 Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists, who have just been announced. Special congrats to Sara Jean Green, a good friend and former Montrealer now at The Seattle Times, who picked up the award for Breaking News Reporting along with other Times staffers. Read their coverage of the shooting deaths of four local police officers and the 40-hour manhunt for the suspect here.

The Investigative Reporting category had two winners: Sheri Fink of ProPublica, who in this item in collaboration with The New York Times Magazine investigated how doctors and nurses dealt with dying patients in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and Barbara Laker and Wendy Ruderman of the Philadelphia Daily News, who in this series exposed a rogue police narcotics squad, resulting in an FBI probe and the review of hundreds of criminal cases.

TAGS: awards