We are concerned about a link provided by NPR’s ombudsman, Alicia Shepard, in her otherwise fine article. In what seems to be a reference to a neutral third party, Shepard cites an article that suggests that “both sides are at fault,” meaning The Infinite Mind and Slate. She gives the following link: <link> to a post by Trevor Butterworth of Stats.org.

But according to Source Watch, <link>: stats.org is a “stealth PR operation of the Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA),” which is funded by the far-right Scaife and Castle Rock Foundations (among others) and has a strongly pro-industry agenda.

Like the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest that we discussed in our article, “Stealth Marketers,” Stats.org thus exists under the guise of impartiality or ‘public interest.’ Their industry ties are not stated up front.

We are also concerned that in Shepard’s piece, Bill Lichtenstein was given space to claim that there simply is no controversy about antidepressants (“no credible scientific evidence”). The Stats.org link claims that we are “at fault” for not talking about how many lives are saved by antidepressants. Yet NPR fails to provide a link or quotation from experts who are concerned about the potential life-threatening harms of antidepressants. However, that wasn’t the topic of our article. Had it been, we would have eaten up a great deal more of Slate’s real estate to discuss the controversy.

Jeanne Lenzer and Shannon Brownlee