Dr Jay said:
<Obviously, if their are efforts to censor or influence your remarks, this
is
a different situation.>

You may not know until it is too late!!
Three years ago I organized a one-day teach in for the staff in my hospital.
It ran for 6 weeks ( one day a week) until all of the staff had heard the
basics of the basics of breastfeeding.
Much to my dismay, I found out , too late, that Ross was providing brunch
for the staff during the break.  I flagrantly refused to partake with
detailed explanation.
I let some of the staff give lectures , thinking that you learn the material
better if you have to present it, and I did the political activist part,
talking about the WHO code, the BFHI, and basically what is happening in the
world with respect to breastfeeding. I wanted everyone to stop thinking that
this was an Esther Grunis "mishigas".

The Chicago Hope episode has just been aired here in Israel, and of course I
mentioned the use of the media to influence people, and I mentioned that
Ross had a very active part in the sponsorship of the program.

Little did I know, but the Ross salesperson happened to be sitting in my
lectures, and the next morning my boss wanted to see me. I thought he was
going to tell me how wonderful the teach-in was, but instead he said that he
was very angry.  Ross head office wanted to sue me for
slander/libel/defamation of character, etc.,  and unless I gave a letter of
apology or proof of my statement of their involvement in the sponsorship, I
was in big trouble. It had to be on his desk by the next morning.

Thank God for Lactnet is all I can say.  I did a search in the archives for
the discussion of the program and sat up half the night printing proof of
the direct link between Chicago Hope and Ross....I traced it back to the
original idea of John's Hopkins to use Chicago Hope to "educate" the public
about certain medical issues, including the dangers of breastfeeding, by
presenting discussions after each program.  These discussions were paid for
by Pharma, a pharmaceutical conglomerate made up of several companies,
including..........guess who!!
I presented my boss with the proof, page by page. At first he laughed in my
face saying that I could not prove that Ross was involved.  I acted with
such innocence, but the final page showed Abbot Ross at the top of the list
of Pharma.  He nearly fainted. Until then he thought I was just a sweet
innocent Lactation Consultant.  Hehehe. Needless to say, I never heard from
them again, and I assume the threats were dropped together with my boss'
lower mandible.

So, if you do lecture in any conference that is sponsored by the ABM
companies, come with proof of everything that you say because they are out
to get you big time!!
Esther Grunis, IBCLC
Lis Maternity Hospital
Tel Aviv, Israel
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