FDA Leak Not News says AC

[James]

In the past I have published several stories about the electronic cigarette, in particular the links between big pharm and the health organisations campaigning against the e-cigarette, on Associated Content. The stories generally get on to google news quickly. This time, however, the story was rejected with the excuse that it wasn't newsworthy:

"News submissions must be written so that the story appears timely. This article was declined because it wasn't clear how your subject is relevant to the current news cycle."

It seems strange to me how an email leak of an FDA crackdown is not newsworthy. The very fact that the news of the FDA leak has not made it the mainstream media makes it seem to me very newsworthy, especially given the background of the tobacco bill.

I may be paranoid, but I wonder how far the arms of the four hundred billion dollar tobacco industry are now spreading. In fact, given the huge financial interests of the tobacco industry, its surprising that the electronic cigarette has lasted as long as it has...

 

[LaceyUnderall]

James - You should be lucky AC even allows you to write about the ecig at all. About a year ago, I submitted an article regarding the ecig and they said they were no longer allowing articles of such topics.

So... keep it up. I for one, enjoy your articles. They are always very well written and on point. Take the article they won't submit and find another site to submit it.

Bill Godshall (and many more) wrote to the email address a pretty good letter and in response got an email back from someone else:

*****
From: "Hitch, Mary C", INTERNET:Mary.Hitch@fda.hhs.gov
To: , SMOKEFREE
Date: 5/1/2009 5:05 PM
RE: Email from Heather Zawalick (CBER)

Dear Mr. Godshall:

Your communication was forwarded to me for response as a function of FDA's Office of External Relations. The email to which you refer contains factual errors and does not reflect an official FDA action or policy.

Sincerely,

Mary C. Hitch
Senior Policy Advisor
Office of External Relations
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
*****

This is definitely newsworthy IMHO.

 

[James]

Thanks for the moral support! I agree with your assessment that it is newsworthy. I have written to AC in protest but have had no reply, which is pretty par for the course for them.

r.e. other site I have used Now Public, but they lack the reach of AC, and articles don't seem to make it onto Google news.

I saw that reply from the FDA and I am sceptical. Looks like damage control to me! In only stating that there were factual errors in the email, it also confirms that the email was sent.

 

[skyrl]

I agree with both of you. This part of the email though makes me wonder whether the email was a hoax, or not "does not reflect an official FDA action or policy", so even if there are factual errors, from what I am reading, those factual errors, and the email itself is not an official plan/policy of the FDA. Wouldn't that imply, that they are not in-fact moving forward with the suspicious email, that was originally posted?

Also, I have been reading across the forum, that people have googled the phone number in the original email, and it came back as a light company. I honestly don't know what to think. Maybe, that email was another scare tactic by big tobacco, or Pharm.

All I know is that nothing is clear, and as much as we loath many things that SE has done, they are the only ones who finally stood up for the rights of the e-cig.

As I said before, this was a time sensitive issue, and we needed to be on the offence, rather than defence, when creating the ECA, and the fastest way to do that, was a press release of our intentions, even before the ECA was legally formed. There would be nothing wrong to issue a press release of our intentions, before we were properly formed, since it would be our intentions of what we are planning. Headlines would have read " US Suppliers/Distributers are forming the ECA to work with the FDA", or something like that. This would have put us in a "ghandi" like postion, and any attack from the FDA, would have been much more futile, than waiting for them to act first, and then issuing a press release, with our mission statement, because then we would be fighting the FDA in the eyes of the public, instead of "work with the FDA", which is a completely different strategy. As I see it now, if the FDA moves forward, we are all going to have to shutdown, until this is settled, but if we acted first, there would have been a much better chance, that the FDA would not take things to the next level, or at least for now.

I guess we will all find out very soon...

 

[dibbyb]

It's not newsworthy because it's unsubstantiated rumors. I can't wait until May 5 (tomorrow) so all will see this is a big scam.

Of course there will be MORE rumors, just like the end of the world is coming in 2012. People are so gullible.