When Mark Crispin Miller, well-known media critic and conspiracy theorist, posted a blog accusing big pharma of secretly being behind the petition to remove Jenny McCarthy as a host from TV’s “The View,” the real controversy unfolded in the blog's comment section.
After it was announced that Jenny McCarthy would be joining TV’s “The View,” America’s op-ed pages were filled with the protests from those afraid that McCarthy would use her position on the show to further her crusade against childhood vaccinations. A petition seeking to have McCarthy replaced was circulated by Change.org bylined by an organization called "Voices for Vaccines."
In his blog post, "Big Pharma’s faking a grass-roots campaign to keep Jenny McCarthy off The View," Miller accused big name pharmaceutical companies of pushing their own vaccine-selling agendas through their involvement with Voices for Vaccines.
Karen Ernst, one of the leaders of Voices for Vaccines, was the first to comment saying, "I have been in contact with exactly zero people who work for pharmaceutical companies or who work in the government about the petition. At best, your headline is misleading. The rest of your blog post is inaccurate. You’ve misrepresented our relationship with our Scientific Advisory Board and our fiscal agent."
