Following the Money: Documents on the Fraser Institute and Big Tobacco
The fact that the Fraser Institute solicited money from large tobacco corporations in exchange for peddling anti-scientific flimflam about the healthfulness of secondhand smoke is actually established knowledge now; that news broke in 2009. However, I’m returning to it for several reasons. First, as you read this, I’m out of town and my WordPress is merrily publishing a backlog of non-time-sensitive material on my behalf (I will try to check comments regularly). Second, the issue of the Fraser Institute’s funding remains a mystery that must be solved. It is Sixth Estate’s belief that all media organizations (including this one) should provide full disclosure of where they get their money from, especially ones that claim to be “independent.”
Finally, it’s worth bringing up because not all of the documents have been properly explored yet. The Fraser Institute continues to publish papers opposing tobacco taxes, something the tobacco industry may or may not still be paying them for. And we’d be naive to think that if they did this with tobacco companies, they wouldn’t do them with various other sectors that benefit from their work, including the oil and gas sector.
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