Does Neutral Research Exist?

This is a correspondence published on Econ Journal Watch by Roy Harrold discussing the obsession of attacking research on the basis of where the source of funds come from.

Excerpts (a good chunk of the letter):


"I concluded that researchers working for corporations must be motivated by nothing but greed. It has only been within the past few years, as a result of intensive research I’ve conducted, that I’ve woken up to the reality that genuinely “neutral” sources of research funding are almost entirely mythical. The reality is that government and non-profit funding is severely limited in some areas and is itself controlled by people who have social, political and public policy agendas of their own. I have finally realized that, if an academic wishes to pursue a hypothesis that is unlikely to support the agendas of government agency or non-profit funders she may find herself with no alternative but to seek or accept corporate funding..."

"I had always believed that government agencies and non-profit organizations involved in public health promotion, social justice, and consumer protection were involved in uncovering and denouncing biased corporate-funded research because they wanted ALL research to be genuinely unbiased. I never imagined, until recently, that some of them were eliminating competition for calculated control over public and policy-maker’s thinking. And then I discovered Social Marketing and “health communications”—was my naive bubble burst!"

"Rather than clearing the field of deceptive, manipulative misrepresentation, some of these agencies and groups were actively copying the very same techniques and technologies employed by industry, for their own purposes. And this included and continues to include commissioning research studies that have very little to do with advancing scientific knowledge and everything to do with calculated propaganda! So much for “the public interest.”