Reply #60: You have one frame of interpretation. Let me present another. [View All]

[Occam Bandage]

You believe that, since Dr. Gupta accepts advertising from Merck and since he promotes a drug produced by Merck, that there is a corrupt link between the two.

I will present an alternative: Merck buys advertising on Dr. Gupta's show, because it feels that people who are interested in a show about medicine are more likely to be receptive to advertisements for medicines. Dr. Gupta accepts the advertisements, because he runs a TV show and that is what TV shows do, and he owes them nothing beyond the cash for the ad time. After all, if Merck hadn't bought it, Ford or Kellogg or someone else would have. On an entirely unrelated note, Dr. Gupta recommends Gardasil because it is an effective preventative for the fifth-leading cause of cancer deaths in women. He would do the same if it were produced by GlaxoSmithKline or Pfizer or whoever.