JunkScience.com

Background

JunkScience.com is a website maintained by Steven J. Milloy, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute and a columnist for FoxNews.com. In the past Milloy was Director of The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC), a front group set up by Philip Morris in 1993 and run by the public relations firm APCO & Associates.

According to Junkscience.com, “Junk science is faulty scientific data and analysis used to advance special interests and hidden agendas.”¹“About Junk Science: FAQs,” Junkscience.com. Archived February 8, 2009. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/4cSMP Steve Milloy has also said that “’Junk science’ is bad science used by lawsuit-happy trial lawyers, the ‘food police,’ environmental Chicken Littles, power-drunk regulators, and unethical-to-dishonest scientists to fuel specious lawsuits, wacky social and political agendas, and the quest for personal fame and fortune.” Milloy claims that the purpose of JunkScience.com is to “help distinguish good science from bad.”²“What is junk science?” JunkScience.Com. Archived July 25, 2015. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/T3eg9

The Consumers Union has defined junk science as a phrase “coined by those practicing public relations and lobbying activities on behalf of some companies in certain industries–particularly the plastics, chemical, biotechnology, and pesticide industries. While its coiners may have legitimate grounds for debate on some issues, the phrase has been used far too often to discredit honest public interest organizations and legitimate scientists who express concerns about consumer safety and environmental risks.”³“Consumers Union Statement about Consumer Distorts,” Consumers Union, December 1999. Archived February 1, 2012. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/IKcqf

An article in Pr Watch titled “How Big Tobacco Helped Create ‘the Junkman’” (PDF) describes how Milloy “launched the ‘Junk Science Home Page’ (www.junkscience.com). Calling himself ‘the Junkman,’ he offered daily attacks on environmentalists, public health and food safety regulators, anti-nuclear and animal rights activists, and a wide range of other targets that he accused of using unsound science to advance various political agendas.”⁴Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber. “How Big Tobacco Helped Create ‘the Junkman’” (PDF), PR Watch, Third Quarter 2000, Volume 7, No. 3. Archived July 25, 2015.

The article also describes a 1999 study by University of Pennsylvania professor Edward S. Herman where he surveyed 258 articles in mainstream newspapers that used the term “junk science.” He concluded that “Only 8 percent of the articles used the term in reference to corporate-manipulated science. By contrast, 62 percent used the term ‘junk science’ in reference to scientific arguments used by environmentalists, other corporate critics, or personal-injury lawyers engaged in suing corporations.”

Stance on Climate Change

“The relationship between CO2 and temperature is logarithmic in nature – that is, as CO2 increases in the atmosphere, it absorbs less and less additional energy to produce correspondingly less and less additional warming. At some point, adding more CO2 to the atmosphere doesn’t significantly change atmospheric temperature.”⁵Steven Milloy. “The Greenhouse Myth,” FoxNews.com, April 20, 2006. Archived July 25, 2015. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/gIOU9

Funding

Although they do not list funding sources on their website, JunkScience.com places no restrictions on who can donate.⁶“Support JunkScience,” JunkScience.com. Archived July 25, 2015. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/b5cxi

According to Greenpeace’s ExxonSecrets, the site was sponsored by “Citizens for Integrity in Science,” a group that existed only on paper and whose website was registered to Milloy’s home address in Potomac.⁷ExxonSecrets Factsheet: JunkScience.com. Archived March 31, 2016.

Key People

• Steven J. Milloy — Publisher.⁸“About the Publisher, Steve Milloy,” JunkScience.Com. Archived July 25, 2015. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/blgAX

Actions

June 16, 2015

Steve Milloy posted a series of tweets attacking the pope’s climate encyclical, calling it “adolescent” and “insipid,” compared the pope’s actions to those of the KGB, and called Pope Francis a “people-hater.” Tweets reproduced below:

Have finished the Pope’s climate encyclical. Highlights tweeted. Some words that come to mind: adolescent, insipid, primitive, embarrassing.

— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) June 15, 2015

Pope’s Leaked Encyclical: Pope goes full liberation theology – which was invented, BTW, by the KGB. pic.twitter.com/vzcmtpG6wX

— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) June 15, 2015

Pope’s Leaked Encyclical: Oh my, the Pope is quite a people-hater. pic.twitter.com/Ijqsz5qgL3

— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) June 15, 2015

June 2015

In an effort to undermine the credibility of the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, JunkScience.com obtained emails from the EPA through the Freedom of Informaiton Act and claimed that two researchers had falsely claimed a study supporting the EPA’s global warming rules was conducted independent of the agency. ⁹“E-mails show Harvard, Syracuse universities, researchers falsely claimed no EPA involvement in Clean Power Plan study,” JunkScience.com, June 3, 2015. Archived July 25, 2015. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/mvOEe

January 2015

JunkScience.com used a FOIA request to obtain documents from the EPA and use them to accuse the Environmental Protection Agency of illegally exposing children to exhaust fumes. The Daily Caller describes JunkScience.com as a “government watchdog group.”¹⁰“Report: EPA Tested Deadly Air Pollutants on Children,” The Daily Caller, January 20, 2015. Archived July 25, 2015. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/6grk7

Steve Milloy has strongly opposed the EPA in a number of cases. He is quoted in the Washington Times:

“The EPA is coming for our jobs, electricity and economy. The Obama administration is preparing to make cap-and-trade look like a walk in the park compared to EPA regulation. Its regulatory apparatus is running amok.

Cut the EPA’s budget. Cut it in March. Close down the federal government if necessary. Save us now.”¹¹“MILLOY: Defund the EPA,” The Washington Times, February 9, 2011. Archived July 25, 2015. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/MS4ZV ¹²“Junkman’s fantasy: Budget impasse sends 90% of EPA apparatchiks home!” JunkScience.com, April 8, 2011. Archived July 25, 2015. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/gG3r3

May 21–23, 2012

JunkScience.com is listed as a Co-Sponsor of the Heartland Institute’s Seventh International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC7).¹³“Cosponsors,” 7th International Conference on Climate Change. Archived June 23, 2012. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/DHPtV

March 2008

In an article for Fox News, titled “Junk Science: The Global Warming Bubble,” Steve Milloy describes his opposition of the Lieberman-Warner global warming bill that was being considered by the Senate.

According to Milloy,

“Sacrificing many trillions of dollars of GDP for a trivial, 45-year-delayed and merely hypothetical reduction in average global temperature must be considered as exponentially more asinine than the dot-bombs of the late-1990s and the NINJA subprime loans that we now look upon scornfully.”¹⁴“Junk Science: The Global Warming Bubble,” Fox News, March 20, 2008. Archived July 25, 2015. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/TKvcN

Related Organizations

• Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC)
• Cooler Heads Coalition — Member.¹⁵“About,” Globalwarming.org. Archived July 25, 2015. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/Epi6K

Other Resources

• “JunkScience.com,” SourceWatch.
• “Junk Science,” SourceWatch.

Resources

• 1
  “About Junk Science: FAQs,” Junkscience.com. Archived February 8, 2009. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/4cSMP
• 2
  “What is junk science?” JunkScience.Com. Archived July 25, 2015. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/T3eg9
• 3
  “Consumers Union Statement about Consumer Distorts,” Consumers Union, December 1999. Archived February 1, 2012. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/IKcqf
• 4
  Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber. “How Big Tobacco Helped Create ‘the Junkman’” (PDF), PR Watch, Third Quarter 2000, Volume 7, No. 3. Archived July 25, 2015.
• 5
  Steven Milloy. “The Greenhouse Myth,” FoxNews.com, April 20, 2006. Archived July 25, 2015. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/gIOU9
• 6
  “Support JunkScience,” JunkScience.com. Archived July 25, 2015. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/b5cxi
• 7
  ExxonSecrets Factsheet: JunkScience.com. Archived March 31, 2016.
• 8
  “About the Publisher, Steve Milloy,” JunkScience.Com. Archived July 25, 2015. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/blgAX
• 9
  “E-mails show Harvard, Syracuse universities, researchers falsely claimed no EPA involvement in Clean Power Plan study,” JunkScience.com, June 3, 2015. Archived July 25, 2015. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/mvOEe
• 10
  “Report: EPA Tested Deadly Air Pollutants on Children,” The Daily Caller, January 20, 2015. Archived July 25, 2015. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/6grk7
• 11
  “MILLOY: Defund the EPA,” The Washington Times, February 9, 2011. Archived July 25, 2015. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/MS4ZV
• 12
  “Junkman’s fantasy: Budget impasse sends 90% of EPA apparatchiks home!” JunkScience.com, April 8, 2011. Archived July 25, 2015. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/gG3r3
• 13
  “Cosponsors,” 7th International Conference on Climate Change. Archived June 23, 2012. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/DHPtV
• 14
  “Junk Science: The Global Warming Bubble,” Fox News, March 20, 2008. Archived July 25, 2015. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/TKvcN
• 15
  “About,” Globalwarming.org. Archived July 25, 2015. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/Epi6K