Cell mates.

• Author: Weiss, Rick
• Position: Letters - Letter to the Editor

In his November story about the failure of journalists to reveal stem cell scientists' potential conflicts of interest, Neil Munro claims that I "denied" there is a problem ("Dr. Who?," November). I certainly did not. What I told him in a rather lengthy telephone interview is that reporters like myself face a difficult situation as we decide when to mention scientists' increasingly long list of affiliations that might influence their judgement on matters of science policy. Certainly reporters are sometimes less than diligent about telling readers all they should about the experts they quote. But discriminating wisdom must be brought to bear since many corporate affiliations are effectively irrelevant and because many non-corporate influences have an equally large influence on the positions that scientists take--such as religion or having a relative with a disease that might be cured by stem cells--which for the most part we don't feel compelled to expose. These are complicated and important journalistic questions, but the reading public is not helped when reporters reduce that nuanced reality into a black-and-white story about good guys and bad guys.

RICK WEISS Staff Writer, The Washington Post While the issue of financial conflict of interest is an important one, it is equally important to be factually correct in suggesting that such a conflict exists. Advanced Tissue Sciences of La Jolla, Calif., is cited by Neil Munro in his article in the context of such potential conflicts given my writing about human cloning and embryonic...