For years there have been reports of the pharmaceutical industry’s intrusion into medicine and science, but with the case of Dr. Fred Goodwin, host of the award-winning public radio series, The Infinite Mind, we have witnessed the incursion of drug companies into the newsroom. And it doesn’t seem as if it will stop with Fred Goodwin.
On November 22, 2008, the New York Times reported that Dr. Fred Goodwin, host of The Infinite Mind, public radio’s most honored and listened to health and science program, had admitted accepting $1.2 million in undisclosed speaking fees from GlaxoSmithKline from 2000 to 2008. (“Radio Host has Drug Company Ties.”) Dr. Fred Goodwin was paid to speak to doctors on behalf of the drug company to promote their medication Lamictal, at the same time that he was serving as the host of The Infinite Mind.
For more than a decade, The Infinite Mind was a highly-acclaimed national, weekly public radio series that covered the broad array of scientific and cultural issues related to mental health, neuroscience and the biology of human behavior. Produced by the Peabody Award-winning Lichtenstein Creative Media, winner of more than 60 major journalism honors, The Infinite Mind was the only broadcast exploring the mind and mental health on an ongoing basis, week in and week out, as listeners across the country tuned into the program with its unique mix of world-leading scientists and clinicians, first-person accounts, special reports, essays, listener calls, and relevant author readings, and musical performances. By doing so, the series helped create an innovative national dialogue on mental health.
In the New York Times article, the issue of Dr. Fred Goodwin’s disclosure of his speaking fees was reported as a “he said/she said” situation, with Fred Goodwin asserting that the public radio show was aware of his paid activities. At the same time, Bill Lichtenstein emphatically insisted that at no point was he aware of the work that Dr. Fred Goodwin had done for GlaxoSmithKline while Fred Goodwin was hosting The Infinite Mind, and that if it had been known, Bill Lichtenstein said, Fred Goodwin would have been dismissed immediately However, to date, reporters have failed to press Dr. Fred Goodwin for any proof of his claim that he disclosed his activities, nor has Fred Goodwin produced any evidence or basis in fact to support his claim that he disclosed his speaking fees to The Infinite Mind, Bill Lichtenstein, or anyone else affiliated with the show, despite strict conflict of interest and disclosure language contained in Dr. Fred Goodwin’s contract with The Infinite Mind.
At the same time, the position of Fred Goodwin with regard to The Infinite Mind and his conflict of interest has continued to change almost daily. On December 2, 2008, the “GW Hatchet” (the student newspaper at George Washington University where Dr. Fred Goodwin teaches) reported that Fred Goodwin denied there had been a conflict of interest given his hosting of The Infinite Mind and acceptance of pharmaceutical fees. Fred Goodwin essentially proposed a novel concept of conflict of interest: “I frankly do not see these things as a conflict of interest. It was my judgment,” said Fred Goodwin. “Like most experts in my field, I have relationships as a consultant with a number of pharmaceutical companies. I’ve always thought that if you have multiple relationships they sort of cancel each other out.”
Additionally, in a story on The Infinite Mind, the “GW Hatchet” reported that “[Dr. Fred Goodwin] maintains he did not violate any contracts with The Infinite Mind because . . . it was never required for him to disclose information,”
On December 9, 2008, the prestigious
The recent New York Times revelations about Fred Goodwin and The Infinite Mind sent shock waves through the journalistic, public broadcasting and medical worlds, because it was the first case of a drug company's undisclosed payments to a working journalist, Fred Goodwin, the host of a nationally broadcast public radio program, no less. Bill Lichtenstein, a former award-winning investigative producer for ABC News, says for that reason it was a watershed event.
Bill Lichtenstein points out that on the heels of the Fred Goodwin matter, is an incident involving former New York Lieutenant Governor Betsy McCaughey, who wrote a February 9, 2009 commentary for Bloomberg News entitled "Ruin Your Health with the Obama Stimulus Plan." In her essay, McCaughey attacked President Obama's proposed stimulus plan as being "dangerous to your health," and she falsely claimed that the stimulus package would allow the government to "monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective ... to reduce costs and 'guide' your doctor's decisions.”
As it turns out, none of what McCaughey reported in her Bloomberg News story, nor what was re-reported by other conservative news outlets, is true, as was detailed by Keith Olbermann on MSNBC's "Countdown" (“Anatomy of a Smear.”) But what Fox News and others who covered the story failed to report was that McCaughey also serves on the board of Cantel Medical, a medical device company, which according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, paid her with 750 shares of stock options worth approximately $11,250 nine days before she wrote her Bloomberg commentary, and $55,000 for the year ending July 31, 2008 after the company realized record revenues in 2008 of $250 million. McCaughey admits she got the payments, but released a statement denying any conflict of interest.
In the wake of the Fred Goodwin disclosure, The Infinite Mind’s Bill Lichtenstein says that questions need to be raised about how to increase the transparency with regard to possible conflicts of interest involving the pharmaceutical industry, and journalists and commentators, particularly with regard to funding from drug and medical device companies. “Journalism as a field continues to rely on self-disclosure,”
