In America, FOIA documents show lots of emails with partisan journalists, allied academics, and organic industry trade groups colluding to promote each other's articles opposing science like pesticides and biotechnology.(1)

And documents show biotech companies like Monsanto hiring companies to try and get positive coverage. The difference is in the collusion. An investigation into a supposed controversy alleged by trade groups like US Right To Know and their sister sites like Sourcewatch, where they claim a journalist like Tamar Haspel asking a question of a Monsanto scientist must be a science conspiracy, and pay organic industry denier for hire Paul Thacker to write a blog post about it, led to nothing.

"We couldn't find anything special or unusual about the lists - it was mostly information that you could find in a public place with a bit of research."

FleishmanHillard Germany managing director Hanning Kempe suggested the findings actually undermine the case of the anti-science groups trying to create a conspiracy narrative "as it looks like Monsanto is not the 'evil empire' after all, and they've done nothing they shouldn't have done."

Oops.

(1) Just one example, the organic industry A-Team and then less consistent advocates like Marion Nestle, Joe Mercola, and Dr. Oz.