ABC Slams American Businesses for Breast Cancer Donations

October 13th, 2006 2:19 PM

So you thought the media only griped about profits when they went to Big Oil amid "record" energy prices? You'd be wrong.

On the October 12 “World News with Charles Gibson,” reporter David Muir took on businesses such as the makers of Campbell’s Soup or Yoplait yogurt that engage in breast cancer fundraising efforts. Their crime? Daring to have a profit motive tied to the PR campaign.

“These pink ribbon campaigns often mean much more to the corporate bottom line than they do to people living with or at risk for breast cancer,” scoffed Barbara Brenner, the executive director of Breast Cancer Action.

Nowhere in his story did Muir mention that corporate fundraising efforts such as Yoplait’s “Save Lids to Save Lives” are often made in direct partnership with the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, perhaps the leading national advocate for breast cancer research and treatment.

Brennan was the only breast cancer research advocate featured in his story, but Muir suggested to viewers those views were shared by research proponents broadly.

“Advocates say” despite raising money for research, “they’re raising their profits a whole lot more,” the ABC reporter closed his story.

What Muir left out was how unorthodox Brenner’s group is and how some argue those views are a distraction in the fight against breast cancer.

A look at Brennan’s Web site reveals her organization is skeptical of, if not downright hostile to corporate sources of research financing. For example, her group refuses any contribution from health insurance or pharmaceutical companies.

But perhaps more disturbing is that her group disputes the wisdom of regular mammogram screenings for women.

For more, see my article here.