Bird Flu Press Conference Today---NPR's Jeff Young Kicks Ass!

[journalist3072]

Kudos to Jeff Young from NPR for having THE question of the day. This was the question he posed to the Secretaries of HHS, Agriculture, and Interior during their joint bird flu press conference today:

REPORTER: Hi. I'm Jeff Young. I work for an NPR program called "Living On Earth." You've all stressed the importance of openly and candidly communicating as this progresses. But of course the administration does not have the best reputation when it comes to openly and candidly communicating science, so in other matters--for example climate change and ignoring the advice of science Advisory Committees on clean air issues for example. There's a long list I'm sure you're aware of. Are you concerned at all that you have undermined public trust in your ability to openly and candidly communicate science?

And here's Mike Johann's (Agriculture Secy) half ass response:

SEC. JOHANNS: I'll offer a thought on that. No, I am not. I appreciate your statement there, but I will tell you that in my experience in working with consumers, and we deal with food health issues on an ongoing basis, I find consumers rely upon our information. They access our information. They make buying decisions based upon the information we have out there.

I can tell you and I think I speak for all of the departments here, when it comes to human health issues they are at the forefront of what we do. In terms of information we put out, I think you can see in how we've handled other issues that we are very transparent. Oftentimes I'll receive information on testing, and 10 minutes later it will be out there in the media's hands with our explanation as to what the testing indicated.

So again, I appreciate your statement. You've had an opportunity here to make it, but quite honestly I think at the USDA we handle that much differently than what your statement would indicate.

Another great soundbite came from Bill Tomson with Dow Jones:

But is it too late to fight H5N1 there so we don't have to fight it here?

Again, a non-response from the Agriculture Secy:

SEC. JOHANNS: Well there at the moment is in a lot of countries. Bill, that's the issue. And there at the moment is wherever migratory birds may fly that might have H5N1. I rest my case. I think we need to be prepared here.


Entire transcript here:

http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB?contentidonly=true&contentid=2006/03/0096.xml

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. I have two words for Mike Johanns: Mad Cow.