NPR Producer Gets Apology Over Goodwin Affair; Says Peter Pitts Not Upfront About Ties to Eli Lilly

Although it has been months since Fred Goodwin lost his NPR show The Infinite Mind after it emerged that he had taken $1.3 million from drug companies and didn’t tell anyone, the former producer of that show continues to wage a war over what was disclosed, who disclosed it, and when it happened.

Bill Lichtenstein, the ex-producer of The Infinite Mind, recently extracted a correction and an apology from On the Media, another NPR show, on the Goodwin matter.

OTM, in a story about the Goodwin affair, wrongly reported that Lichtenstein knew that Goodwin was taking money from GlaxoSmithKline. Lichtenstein did not know about the money, he says. (OTM also admitted they didn’t bother to call Lichtenstein for comment.)

Case closed? Not entirely. Lichtenstein continues to insist in emails to BNET that a guest on the show, Peter Pitts, also did not disclose that he has drug companies as clients. Pitts was on the show as a former FDA official, although he now earns earned a living as an svp at Manning, Selvage & Lee, which handles some diabetes work for Eli Lilly. (Pitts is now at Porter Novelli.) Lilly makes Prozac, and the show in question was devoted to antidepressants. Pitts’ link to Lilly was not disclosed on the Goodwin show. Lichtenstein:

The Infinite Mind producer who contacted him is a seasoned journalist, a Columbia Journalism graduate, and teaches journalism at a major university, and swears he did not disclose to her that he was a PR person for pharma; if he did, alarm bells certainly would have gone off…

Pitts has told BNET that he did tell the show that his company worked for Lilly. See Pitts’ take here and here. Contacted for comment, Pitts added:

I stand by what I said.  The producer can play deaf but ends up just sounding dumb.  Further, for the record, MS&L only does work for the Lilly endocrine portfolio.  Zero CNS work.  I wonder if Mr. Lichtenstein gave up crow for Lent.

To bolster his case against Pitts, Lichtenstein points out that when Pitts’ pr agency, SpectrumNewsMedia, pitches Pitts as a talking head to news shows, he is presented as “Peter Pitts, former associate commissioner for the FDA, and co-founder of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest (CMPI).” His ties to MS&L are not mentioned, although his web site, DrugWonks.com, is. (See full text of a Pitts pitch email below.) As Lichtenstein puts it:

No mention of corporate ties, or that Pitts works as a PR person for the industries about which he is seeking to comment.  Just a concerned former federal official, now working in the non-profit world, who wants to help educate the public.

BNET’s take: Pitts probably ought to be mentioning in his pitch emails that he now works for Porter Novelli MS&L in addition to his other credentials, but this doesn’t let seasoned journalists, Columbia Journalism graduates, and journalism teachers at major universities off the hook. If you Google Pitts’ name the very first thing that comes up is SourceWatch’s wiki, which describes him as an MS&L employee. How Pitts makes a living is not a secret. The show should have known who Pitts was before they asked him on, even if Pitts didn’t disclose it.

Disclosure: In a bizarre coincidence, the author is also a “seasoned” journalist who graduated from Columbia Journalism and who also teaches journalism at NYU’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies. But I wasn’t the show producer.

That email:

From: Matt Yancey <matt@spectrumnewsmedia.com>
Date: Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 7:30 AM
Subject: Former FDA Official Available on Peanut Investigation / HHS Selection Process – Peter Pitts (CMPI)
To: Peter Kramer <lcm@lcmedia.com>

Hi, Peter:

With the Food and Drug Administration’s peanut processing investigation continuing, I wanted to see if now might be a good time to speak with Peter Pitts, former associate commissioner for the FDA, and co-founder of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest (CMPI).

Massachusetts joins a lengthy list of states to be affected:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29364574/

Peter’s past experience as Food and Drug associate commissioner puts him in a unique position to discuss the ongoing investigation, as well as the potential candidates to head the FDA.

Pitts can also discuss the health secretary selection process and potential replacements, how the Tom Daschle withdrawl affects healthcare reform, and what can be expected next from the Obama administration.

Peter is featured in recent articles with Newsday and Bloomberg below:

http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/saturday/health/ny-hssalm316018477jan31,0,7903163.story

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aPbtbEyA9YyE&refer=us

Peter frequently post comments on health and medicine at drugwonks.com. If you would like more information or to schedule, please call 202.258.9766 or reply by email.

Thank you.

Matt Yancey
202.258.9766
SpectrumNewsMedia
4804 41st Street, NW
Washington, DC  20016

• See BNET’s previous coverage of this issue:
• NPR Producer: Goodwin Broke “Ironclad” Contract Over GSK Cash; Pitts Didn’t Disclose Ties
• Goodwin, Biederman on Counter-Attack in Drug Funding Transparency Scandal
• Fred Goodwin Loses NPR Gig Over GlaxoSmithKline Ties
• BNET Focus on Antidepressants: Part 2, Controversies