PS: I think expecting many actual scientists among writing staff is too much for media organizations.
Sorry to open this can of worms but if you look at a site like phys.org's list of contributors/editors nearly every one has some scientific background.
https://sciencex.com/help/about-us/
If you go to Newscientist and look up some of their authors you have people like this (randomly picked, from clicking on articles, then googling, easily reproducible):
https://cosmosmagazine.com/contributors/phil-dooley
https://influencing.com/au/story/new-scientist-hires-alice-klein-as-australian-reporter
In my opinion to credibly report on science you need at least one person, whether it be editor (ideally) or a consult who has training in the area.
His claims are in direct conflict with the income of large powerful corporations - clearly if it was up to them they would never be examined or researched.
JR Simplot only has about $6 Billion in revenue https://www.forbes.com/companies/jr-simplot/#73d027924cea
That puts them pretty close to Linux Developer Redhat
https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/13/red-hat-continues-steady-march-toward-5-billion-revenue-goal/
Now it you look at the revenue of the largest companies (all over $111 billion):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_companies_by_revenue
You'll notice BP, Exxon, Foxconn, etc.. All who failed miserably at using their money/influence to suppress bad press.
Even McDonald's which has revenue of roughly 20-25 billion has been utterly unsuccessful at stopping research against trans-fats, obesity, etc..
https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/MCD/mcdonalds/revenue
Monsanto which can be recognized as the most well known example of the GMO debate only hovers around $15 billion and really has been unsuccessful at suppressing contrary research/bad press (in fact their name has become synonymous with the furor of many movements)
https://monsanto.com/investors/reports/annual-reports/financial-highlights/
I'm not saying you can't believe Ecowatch is a credible site but I can say that they do not meet my personal criteria for credible scientific journalism
I appreciate the effort in your replies.
That's still quite a small group of science media websites - I'm still guessing there's another group of websites that don't set off your 'credibility' alarms, but don't have many scientists on board.
Success and failure at stopping bad press is all relative. Perhaps action and awareness of trans-fats would occurred over much smaller timeframes without the influence of companies who profit from it. Perhaps they never would have been sold as healthy in the first place?
Don't forget, if these companies have been really successful at suppressing bad press, we wouldn't know about it.
Monsanto's success is also relative - they seem to be doing quite well. And as this article demonstrates people objecting to GMO do often get instantly branded as anti-science.
Perhaps the obvious example of wildly successful corporate influence on media and public opinion is global warming.
I appreciate your civility and oneness to debate, thank you.
Thanks for the interesting links. With a name like Ecowatch, you certainly expect them to be presenting for a certain audience. Two of your links relate to mediabiasfactcheck.com (MBFC) and their comment on Ecowatch is:
Not exactly scathing. Concerning their own funding MBFC writes:
Not that I have reason to distrust them, but even they don't claim to be bias free because it's an impossible goal.
Your other source, agdaily.com, has bias written into its name just as Ecowatch does. The article you link to is written by Michelle Miller aka "Farm Babe" whose prime qualification seems to be working on a farm, and whose tone is at least as biased as the environmental articles of Ecowatch.
His claims are in direct conflict with the income of large powerful corporations - clearly if it was up to them they would never be examined or researched.
PS: I think expecting many actual scientists among writing staff is too much for media organizations.