Taking conflict of interest too far (created 2010-11-06).

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There was a recent incident involving a television news reporter that made me think a bit about conflict of interest. A reporter for MSNBC, Keith Olberman, was suspended for making political contributions to three liberal candidates. MSNBC has a policy forbidding such contributions because it harms the perceived objectivity of news reporters. A nice summary appears at
 * http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/06/us/06olbermann.html
What interests me is that a similar perception about objectivity of researchers in medicine.

http://www.plosmedicine.org/static/editorsInterests.action

http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.0050199

The PLoS Medicine Editors. Making Sense of Non-Financial Competing Interests. PLoS Med. 2008;5(9):e199. Excerpt: "Non-financial competing interests (sometimes called �private interests�) can be personal, political, academic, ideological, or religious. Like financial interests, they can influence professional judgment. Much as we'd like to believe that the reporting and evaluation of research are always objective, there is substantial evidence to the contrary. Like all human activity, academic research and scientific publishing are inherently subjective, imperfect, and prone to bias, corruption, and self-interest. Indeed, because professional affinities and rivalries, nepotism, scientific or technological competition, religious beliefs, and political or ideological views are often the fuels for our passions and for our careers, private competing interests are perhaps even more potent than financial ones." [Accessed November 24, 2010]. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0050199.