Any dentist worth hissalt (or sugar) can tell you the age old joke that reads something like, “ignore your teeth and they’ll go away.” However, the same cannot be said for NFI:

February 1, 2010

Bill Felling

National News Editor

CBS News

VIA Email

Dear Mr. Felling,

I wanted to thank you for initiating contact with Linda Mason regarding our concerns about Kelly Wallace‘s report on the January 18^th edition of the Early Show. However, she has not responded to our January 22^nd letter.

We asked Ms. Mason to release the results of any and all lab tests that were performed during the production of the report in order to provide a clear, open and journalistically sound view of the alleged impact of eating a single tuna sandwich on Wallace’s BPA blood levels. Ms. Mason has not responded to our request.

Our concerns about this report and the clear impression it left are valid and will not simply disappear if they are ignored. I am sure you share our belief that CBS News has a responsibility to its viewers to not only produce the highest quality reporting but to ensure that when concerns are raised the issues are thoroughly investigated with CBS’s standards in mind.

Ms. Mason defends the report on a number of levels insisting that CBS never actually stated a single tuna sandwich was responsible for elevating Ms. Wallace’s BPA levels. Evidence that this misleading impression was conveyed to viewers can be found in internet posts like the following:

• As Kelly Wallace from CBC News discovered, just eating one tuna sandwich caused BPA levels in her blood to soar to over five times the average BPA level found in the blood of American consumers (and that “average” level is dangerous to begin with). — NaturalNews

As I mentioned to Ms. Mason, CBS News has been specifically warned about the effects of creating “misleading” impressions in the past and we remain extremely concerned that such an impression is being allowed to stand as record in this case.

Thank you for your continued attention to this on going matter.

Sincerely,

Gavin Gibbons

National Fisheries Institute

cc Linda Mason

Senior Vice President

Standards and Special Projects

Andy Schotz

Society of Professional Journalists

Ethics Committee Chair