Klein Twits The Sacramento Bee

California stem cell chairman Robert Klein has fired back rather mildly at The Sacramento Bee, one of his stronger critics, declaring that its most recent editorial was inconsistent with its previous positions.

The comment was published in The Bee in response to an Aug. 13 editorial that said the agency was in a state of denial.

Klein said The Bee's editorial "implies that the CIRM should slow down in its
forward movement, yet in past editorials you have criticized us for moving too
slowly: " He cited a May 22 piece.

Klein also took issue with The Bee's position that CIRM should not seek funding from non-profit organizations. He pointed to two state programs that have non-profit funding. But he did not address The Bee's main point, which was that heavy reliance on non-profits could lead to untoward influence of those organizations on CIRM.

Klein's response was the first such to a Bee editorial. The article in question was moderate compared to others The Bee has published.

Klein's comments also have the earmarks of the work by the Edelman PR firm, which is being paid $27,500 a month to peddle the agency's position. Edelman has been criticized by members of the Oversight Committee for not demonstrating much "product." The Klein letter to The Bee is another demonstration that Edelman may be beginning to produce. But the sad fact is that one of the problems of the agency all year is its weak PR and dismal public information efforts. Perhaps that is beginning to change, but CIRM has a long way to go.

The agency could start with long needed improvement in the agendas for its meetings, which should have full backup material online. We have pointed out repeatedly that even lowly school districts do a better job in distributing information to the public in advance of meetings. Members of the Oversight Committee have complained as well that they do not get material for the meetings in sufficient time.












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