Our fight over the truth about tilapia continues.
Earlier today, the Winston-Salem
Journal issued a pair of corrections
to the story they ran earlier this week that erroneously claimed NFI was
orchestrating profit-driven attacks on research published by Dr. Floyd
“Ski” Chilton, rather than simply holding the media accountable for
not including dissenting voices in their coverage. Here’s what ran in
today’s paper:

“A story Monday on the controversy surrounding a study
on the health benefits of tilapia contained two errors. It said that officials
with the National Fisheries Institute said they were attacking the study
because of its potential to hurt tilapia sales. The institute said it is trying
to educate consumers. The story also said that a letter that took issue with
the study’s findings was from the institute. It was from 16 scientists, none
affiliated with the institute.”

While we’re grateful that the Journal ran these corrections, we still have more than a few
questions. Of particular concern was Richard Craver’s claim in the original
story that NFI stated it takes issue with the study because of the potential to
hurt tilapia sales. I want to reiterate, Craver never interviewed any
representative of NFI – he certainly never called me, something which has to be
looked at as an unforgivable oversight.
The only contact between NFI and the Journal
came via email. Further, none of the press releases nor any of the blog
posts NFI published on this topic mentioned the effect of the study on the sale
of tilapia.

This leads us to ask: What was Mr. Craver’s explanation as
to how this assertion was included in the story? I think NFI deserves an
answer.

Another minor detail – the
letter NFI dietitian Jennifer Wilmes
referred to was not from NFI, as Craver claimed. It was from a panel of 16 independent
scientists hoping to reassure consumers about the healthfulness of tilapia.

But what’s really galling is that had these two facts been
presented correctly in Monday’s story, it would have totally undermined the reporter’s
assertion that NFI is attacking the findings of Dr. Chilton’s study. I’ll
repeat: Our beef isn’t with Dr. Chilton’s findings regarding omega-3s and
omega-6s in fish, but rather, it’s with the way the national press – including
the Winston-Salem Journal – continues
to distort those findings in a way that could have a negative impact on public
health, while deliberately ignoring dissenting scientific opinions.

Worse yet, the damage continues. You see, even though
we took our concerns directly to the Winston-Salem
Journal, that didn’t stop them from forwarding the uncorrected story to the
Scripps
Howard News Service. Which is why that same uncorrected story ran this
week in the Chicago
Sun-Times.

UPDATE: You can see the original story with the edited corrections by clicking here.