Follow the Science: How Big Pharma Misleads, Obscures, and Prevails

by Sharyl Attkisson

I would learn years later that the CBS advertising division contacted the CBS Evening News executive producer on behalf of AstraZeneca to warn about my coverage exposing the dangers of Crestor and other statin drugs that had aired on the news. The executive producer told me that “one of the [CBS] sales bosses threatened” him “pretty harshly” and left him a “loud, angry voicemail saying ‘[Sharyl’s] stories could really harm [CBS’s ad] business.’” Back then, as now, CBS and the other news networks received tens of millions of dollars a year in ad money from the pharmaceutical industry. A news division’s editorial decisions should be strictly firewalled from the corporate advertising department. In reality, they’re not.