Snyder says CSCR Headline Lacks Impartiality

Here is the text of Evan Snyder's remarks concerning the following headline – “Burnham's Snyder Receives $1.85 Million More Despite Faulty Application” – on the item on March 11, 2010.

“I would have to say that the headline you used betrays an absence of journalistic impartiality. I gather from the perjorative phraseology that you have a point-of-view on this issue and are not sitting as a disinterested chronicler. Had you been that -- which I mistakenly assumed you to be -- you would simply have stated the facts -- 'Snyder awarded grant for Parkinson's research'. However, you did not. Rather you injected yourself into the story. I was actually trained in journalism as early as high school, and my instructors would have castigated me for such a headline.

“I, and the scientists who reviewed our proposal, see this proposal as not in the least flawed. Indeed, I (and most who have studied its aims) find it to be among the most scientifically rigorous, predictive, expeditious, parsimonious, and cost-effective study ever proposed in the stem cell field for Parkinson's disease with any hope for answering long-simmering scientific questions and advancing rational and safe treatments to California citizens suffering from this horrible, debilating disease. Every aspect was spelled out in detail from moment #1; no aspects were hidden. California -- as represented by the study section, CIRM, and the ICOC -- recognized the golden unique opportunity to move the field forward for its citizens and appropriately, sagely, and responsibly seized it. Hence, I find 'zero' flaws in this application. My headline would have been very different.”