Are particular politicians implicated? Why does no Spanish TV station do a documentary on this scandal? What is the situation and dynamics of the 'free press' in Spain today?
The "aceite de colza" scandal is very well known in Spain.
The Spanish cooking oil scandal (2001)
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Re: The Spanish cooking oil scandal (2001)
#12Are particular politicians implicated? Why does no Spanish TV station do a documentary on this scandal? What is the situation and dynamics of the 'free press' in Spain today?
There is no free press in Spain. Period.
I am a Spaniard living in Spain and this is a quite amazing statement. Do you mind elaborating a bit ?
Re: The Spanish cooking oil scandal (2001)
#13Are particular politicians implicated? Why does no Spanish TV station do a documentary on this scandal? What is the situation and dynamics of the 'free press' in Spain today?
The "aceite de colza" scandal is very well known in Spain.
Yes, and this article is explaining how that was a scapegoat coverup...
My question is asking why no free press nor free police investigates the real cause of the mass poisoning.
Re: The Spanish cooking oil scandal (2001)
#14And yet, Wikipedia only has an article about "Toxic Oil Syndrome" that doesn't mention at all that it might have been a cover-up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxic_oil_syndrome
Re: The Spanish cooking oil scandal (2001)
#15Are particular politicians implicated? Why does no Spanish TV station do a documentary on this scandal? What is the situation and dynamics of the 'free press' in Spain today?
I think you are wrong. This scandal is incredibly well-known in Spain. It's gotten massive press coverage throughout the years. In fact, most people that used to use cheap cooking oils switched to olive oil after the scandal. (For those who are not familiar with the matter, the scandal involved using chemicals on industrial-grade rapeseed oil to remove dyes and re-sell it to consumers.)
> switched to olive oil after the scandal
Do you actually have olive oil in your olive oil? In the U.S., most of the olive oil for sale is either misgraded or adulterated[1]
[1] http://time.com/money/4326354/fake-olive-oil-food-fraud/
Re: The Spanish cooking oil scandal (2001)
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you are wrong. This scandal is incredibly well-known in Spain. It's gotten massive press coverage throughout the years. In fact, most people that used to use cheap cooking oils switched to olive oil after the scandal. (For those who are not familiar with the matter, the scandal involved using chemicals on industrial-grade rapeseed oil to remove dyes and re-sell it to consumers.)
I'm sorry if I misunderstand you, but your comment quite suggests that it has _not_ gotten any press if the takeaway is to switch oils. Are you suggesting that you still see evidence of people responding to the misinformation reported in this article? And that the news is still reporting this as fact?
News does report toxic oil as a fact.
But most people are familiar with other hypotheses, including the Bayer pesticides one.
I've seen compelling first-hand evidence that oil was the culprit, but I'm open to other hypotheses too.
Re: The Spanish cooking oil scandal (2001)
#17tldr: it wasn't the oil: "without any doubt, the contaminated foodstuff was tomatoes, and it was the pesticides on them that were responsible for the epidemic" (This relates to the separate NYP post about phony food, which says "Fake olive oil...has killed people...more than 20,000 people were poisoned in Spain...")
Just like that the symptoms supposedly caused by the "Zika virus" is more likely to be a result from food by contaminated by pesticides/herbicides. The last line of the article is most telling indeed: > "Under no circumstances should the general public be informed." This is the main problem. We would all be much more selective when it comes to our food if we knew how flaky the quality is. But instead we trust the gov…
> Just like that the symptoms supposedly caused by the "Zika virus" is more likely to be a result from food by contaminated by pesticides/herbicides.
You're making a claim here that pretty radically departs from scientific consensus. Do you have any background information on where you read this/how you determined this?
Re: The Spanish cooking oil scandal (2001)
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is no free press in Spain. Period.
I am a Spaniard living in Spain and this is a quite amazing statement. Do you mind elaborating a bit ?
Most major newspapers are actually insolvent and are kept afloat by the political establishment. Editors of major newspapers are often replaced when they do are too critical of the government.
When a couple of months ago there was a critical article on the new York times the writer was rapidly dismissed just to prove the point.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/11/12/world/europe/spanish-wr...
Re: The Spanish cooking oil scandal (2001)
#19And yet, Wikipedia only has an article about "Toxic Oil Syndrome" that doesn't mention at all that it might have been a cover-up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxic_oil_syndrome
Actually, the last paragraph of the linked wikipedia article mentions the organo-phosphate theory (it somewhat labels it as conspiracy-theory, but it mentions it).
The talk page actually mentions a kind of rebuttal to the organo-phosphate theory (which claims that the symptoms are not compatible with organo-phosphate poisoning):
http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/33/3/443
I can't really evaluate any of these claims since my expertise in this field is non-existant. Things might be as simple as described in the Guardian article (which portrays the organo-phosphate theory as self-evident but suppressed truth), or maybe more complicated. The forced resignation of all responsible researchers certainly smells very funny and the Spanish government seems to have tried to suppress the truth or at least give the impression that they were able to handle things by suppressing dissenting opinions.
Re: The Spanish cooking oil scandal (2001)
#20Are particular politicians implicated? Why does no Spanish TV station do a documentary on this scandal? What is the situation and dynamics of the 'free press' in Spain today?
There is no free press in Spain. Period.
Yes, there is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_Freedom_Index