Jon Entine#Genetic Literacy Project

Entine was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania into an Ashkenazi Jewish family from eastern Europe{{cite news |last=Entine |first=Jon |date=March–April 2008 |title=Is DNA Abolishing Differences or Embracing Them? |work=Ancestry Magazine |pages=42, 44}} and was raised in Reform Judaism.{{cite book|last=Entine|first=Jon|title=Abraham's Children: Race, Identity, and the DNA of the Chosen People|year=2007|publisher=Grand Central Publishing|chapter=Chapter 1: The Dead Sea Scrolls of DNA|isbn=9780446408394}} He graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1974{{cite news |last=Finkelstein |first=James |date=December 1974 |title=Class Notes: 74 |work=Trinity Reporter |location=Hartford, CT |url=https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1989&context=reporter |access-date=2022-05-06}} with a B.A. in philosophy.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}

In high school, Entine worked as a weekend copyboy for the CBS owned-and-operated TV station then known as WCAU. In 1975, Entine was hired to write for the ABC News program AM America, which was renamed Good Morning America the following year. Entine worked for ABC News as a writer, assignment desk editor, and producer in New York City and Chicago from 1975 to 1983 for programs including the ABC Evening News, 20/20 and Nightline. He took a leave of absence from ABC News in 1981–1982 to study at the University of Michigan under a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship in journalism.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}

Entine joined NBC News in New York in 1984 as a special segment producer for NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, where he worked until 1990. In 1989, Entine and Brokaw collaborated to write and produce Black Athletes: Fact and Fiction, which was named Best International Sports Film of 1989.[https://books.google.com/books?id=SfTXJVEC6c8C&pg=PA224 Brand NFL: Making and Selling America's Favorite Sport], by Michael Oriard, Univ of North Carolina Press, 2007, pg. 224. From 1989 to 1990, Entine served as executive in charge of documentaries at NBC News. He rejoined ABC News in 1991 as an investigative producer for Primetime. In 1993 Entine produced a story with reporter Sam Donaldson on eye surgery clinics that led to a lawsuit against ABC News, Entine, and Donaldson.{{cite book|last=Russomanno|first=Joseph|title=Speaking our minds: Conversations with the people behind landmark First Amendment cases|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ObB8gmOXFuAC&pg=PA147|year=2002|publisher=Psychology Press|pages=134–69 |chapter=J.H. Desnick, M.D. Eye Services, Ltd., et al. vs American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., Jon Entine, and Sam Donaldson|isbn=9780805837674}}{{cite web|url=http://www.rcfp.org/browse-media-law-resources/news-media-law/news-media-and-law-winter-2001/libel-suit-against-abcs-pri|title=Libel suit against ABC's 'PrimeTime Live' dismissed|date=Winter 2001|work=The News Media & The Law|publisher=The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press|access-date=October 4, 2011}} The suit was dismissed by a federal appeals court, which concluded: "The only scheme here was a scheme to expose publicly any bad practices that the investigative team discovered, which is nothing fraudulent."{{cite journal|last1=Posner|first1=Richard|title=Desnick v. American Broadcasting Corporation|website=FindLaw.com|date=10 January 1995|volume=94-2399|url=https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-7th-circuit/1019825.html|access-date=8 May 2016|ref=vABC}} In 1994, Entine produced a prime time special on the Miss America Pageant, "Miss America: Beyond the Crown" for NBC Entertainment.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}

In September 1994, Entine wrote an investigative article titled "Shattered Image: Is The Body Shop Too Good to Be True?" The article caused an international controversy and led to articles in The New York Times{{Citation needed|date=June 2020}} and a report on ABC World News Tonight.{{Citation needed|date=June 2020}} The Body Shop{{Broken anchor|date=2024-06-02|bot=User:Cewbot/log/20201008/configuration|target_link=The Body Shop#Controversies|reason= The anchor (Controversies) has been deleted.}}, the British-based international cosmetics company, which until that point had been considered a model "socially responsible" company, tried to block the story from being published.{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/besieged-body-shop-comes-out-fighting-1379187.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220614/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/besieged-body-shop-comes-out-fighting-1379187.html |archive-date=2022-06-14 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Besieged Body Shop comes out fighting|newspaper=The Independent|access-date=November 30, 2013|location=London|first=Cyril|last=Dixon|date=August 28, 1994}} Following the controversy, The Body Shop's stock suffered a temporary 50% drop in market value.{{Citation needed|date=June 2020}} The case has become the subject of business and management ethics studies.{{cite book|last1=Carroll|first1=Archie B.|last2=Buchholtz|first2=Ann K.|title=Business and Society: Ethics, Sustainability, and Stakeholder Management|date=1 January 2014|publisher=Cengage Learning|pages=583–587|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OugbCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA587 |access-date=8 May 2016|ref=Carroll|isbn=9781285734293}}{{cite journal|title=The Body Shop(A): Anita Roddick's Green Brand?|journal=IBS Case Development Centre|date=2006|volume=ENT0019C|url=http://www.ibscdc.org/Case_Studies/Entrepreneurship/Entrepreneurship/ENT0019C.htm|access-date=8 May 2016}}

Entine is the executive director of the Genetic Literacy Project (GLP), an organization he founded.{{cite web | last=Sentenac | first=Hannah | title=GMO salmon may soon hit food stores, but will anyone buy it? | website=Fox News | date=2014-03-11 | url=https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/gmo-salmon-may-soon-hit-food-stores-but-will-anyone-buy-it | access-date=2018-03-04}}{{cite web|title=Mission, Financial Transparency, Governorship|url=https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/mission-financials-governorship/|website=genetic literacy project|access-date=7 March 2017}} The GLP is a non-profit organization that promotes public awareness and discussion of genetics, biotechnology, evolution and science literacy.{{cite web |last1=Richardson |first1=Hillary |title=LibGuides: Public Health Research Guide: Genetics and Health |url=https://libguides.muw.edu/c.php?g=868887&p=7396923 |website=libguides.muw.edu |access-date=3 July 2020 |language=en}}{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/five-myths/five-myths-about-gene-editing/2017/08/24/f524b484-86a6-11e7-a94f-3139abce39f5_story.html|title=Five myths about gene editing|newspaper=Washington Post|date=August 25, 2017}}{{cite web |last1=Anthes |first1=Emily |title=Don't Be Afraid of Genetic Modification |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/opinion/sunday/dont-be-afraid-of-genetic-modification.html |work=The New York Times |access-date=6 July 2020 |date=9 March 2013}} The site presents articles on topics related to food and agricultural genetics, as well as human genetics.{{cite web |title=GMO FAQS |url=https://gmo.geneticliteracyproject.org/ |website=Genetic Literacy Project |access-date=8 July 2020}} It also aggregates articles from various published sources. GLP has posted articles taking positions against labeling GMO foods.{{cite web|last1=Revkin|first1=Andrew|title=A Risk Communicator Says Industry Should Embrace Labeling of Genetically Modified Food|url=https://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/01/an-argument-for-industry-to-embrace-labeling-of-gmo-foods/|website=New York Times|access-date=8 March 2017|date=November 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200226025003/https://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/01/an-argument-for-industry-to-embrace-labeling-of-gmo-foods/|archive-date =2020-02-26}}{{cite web|last1=Van Hoewyk|first1=Doug|title=If GMOs are safe, why aren't they labeled? Straight answer to a valid question|url=https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/10/23/if-gmos-are-safe-why-arent-they-labeled-straight-answer-to-a-valid-question/|website=Genetic Literacy Project|access-date=September 24, 2019 |date=October 23, 2015}} In a Financial Times article, the Genetic Literacy Project site was described as a provider of information on genomics that is not readily accessible to the general public.{{cite web |title=The secret genomic revolution |url=https://www.ft.com/content/2af2f6e2-0840-11e7-97d1-5e720a26771b |publisher=Financial Times |access-date=8 July 2020|date=March 27, 2017}}

US Right to Know, an advocacy group funded in large part by the Organic Consumers Association,{{cite journal |title=Standing up for science |journal=Nature Biotechnology |date=October 2015 |volume=33 |issue=10 |pages=1009 |doi=10.1038/nbt.3384 |pmid=26448065 |language=en |issn=1546-1696|doi-access=free }}{{cite news|last1=Lipton|first1=Eric|title=Food Industry Enlisted Academics in G.M.O. Lobbying War, Emails Show|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/06/us/food-industry-enlisted-academics-in-gmo-lobbying-war-emails-show.html|newspaper=New York Times|access-date=11 March 2017|date=2015-09-05}} raised concerns after the GLP ran a series of articles in 2014 supportive of crop biotechnology after the scientists had been encouraged to do so by American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation Monsanto.{{Cite news|last=Kaskey|first=Jack|date=2 October 2015|title=How Monsanto mobilized academics to pen articles supporting GMOs|work=Chicago Tribune|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-wp-blm-monsanto-0c06199a-692b-11e5-bdb6-6861f4521205-20151002-story.html}} {{blockquote|text= The [Genetic Literacy Project] said that such a disclosure isn't necessary because [Monsanto] didn't pay the authors and wasn't involved in writing or editing the articles.}}

{{blockquote|text= I got independent articles written by independent professors," Entine said [. . .]. "I ended up working with the professors to edit their pieces and I had total control over the final product. There is nothing to disclose.}} The GLP said the authors were not paid for their articles. Entine remarked that he had total control of the editing process and that there was nothing to disclose.

In 2020 and 2021 the GLP received {{US$|741,183}} and {{US$|494,075}} in donations, respectively.{{Cite web |last=Genetic Literacy Project |date=2021 |title=Genetic Literacy Project - Annual Report 2021 |url=https://geneticliteracyproject.org/download/2434986/ |access-date=2023-02-21}}

Entine has written three books on genetics and two on chemicals. Let Them Eat Precaution: How Politics is Undermining the Genetic Revolution examines the controversy over genetic modification in agriculture.{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}

Entine's first book, Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We're Afraid to Talk About It was inspired by the documentary on black athletes written with Brokaw in 1989.[https://www.nytimes.com/books/00/04/16/reviews/000416.16holtlt.html Nobody Does It Better: A journalist looks at the sensitive issue of how black athletes came to rule American sports], by Jim Holt, New York Times, April 16, 2000. It received reviews ranging from mostly positive to highly negative in The New York Times.{{cite news|title=Books of the Times: The race to the swift. Or is it the swift to the race?|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/01/14/books/books-of-the-times-the-race-to-the-swift-or-is-it-the-swift-to-the-race.html|access-date=November 30, 2013|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 14, 2000|first=Richard|last=Bernstein}}{{Cite news|last=Marks|first=Jonathan|date=8 April 2000|title=A feckless quest for a basketball gene|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/08/opinion/a-feckless-quest-for-the-basketball-gene.html}} Physical anthropologist Jonathan Marks characterized the book as "make-believe genetics applied to naively conceptualized groups of people."

In 2007, Entine published Abraham's Children: Race, Identity and the DNA of the Chosen People which examined the shared ancestry of Jews, Christians and Muslims, and addressed the question "Who is a Jew?" as seen through the prism of DNA. In a review of this book, geneticist Harry Ostrer wrote that Entine's "understanding of the genetics is limited and uncritical, but his broad, well-documented sweep of Jewish history will inform even the most knowledgeable of readers."{{Cite journal|last=Ostrer|first=Harry|date=February 2008|title=A genetic view of Jewish history|journal=Nature Genetics|volume=40|issue=127|page=127|doi=10.1038/ng0208-127|s2cid=28651435|doi-access=free}}

He was previously senior research fellow at the Center for Health & Risk Communication at George Mason University where he began in 2011{{cite web|title=Founding CHRC Faculty Scholars|url=http://chrc.gmu.edu/scholars|publisher=[The Center for Health and Risk Communication|access-date=November 30, 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102103403/http://chrc.gmu.edu/scholars|archive-date=November 2, 2013}} and at GMU's STATS (Statistical Assessment Service).{{cite web|title=STATS - Staff |url=http://stats.org/about_staff.htm |publisher=George Mason University |access-date=November 30, 2013 |archive-date=December 7, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131207094229/http://stats.org/about_staff.htm |url-status=dead }}

Entine joined the conservative American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research as an adjunct scholar in 2002 and was subsequently a visiting scholar.{{Citation needed|date=June 2020}} His research focuses on science and society and corporate sustainability. AEI Press has published three books written and edited by Entine: Crop Chemophobia: Will Precaution Kill the Green Revolution?, which analyzes the impact of chemicals in agriculture; Pension Fund Politics: The Dangers of Socially Responsible Investing, which focuses on the growing influence of social investing in pension funds; and Let Them Eat Precaution: How Politics Is Undermining the Genetic Revolution in Agriculture, which examined the debate over genetic modification (GMOs), food, and farming.

As of 2016, Entine was a senior fellow at the Institute Food and Agricultural Literacy at University of California Davis.{{cite news |title=Gary Ruskin and Jon Entine Tangle over the GMO Corporate Connection |url=https://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/news/200/gary-ruskin-and-jon-entine-tangle-over-the-gmo-corporate-connection/ |publisher=Corporate Crime Reporter |date=29 April 2016}}

In 2012 when asked about affiliations between the agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation Monsanto and his consulting company ESG Mediametrics, Entine said, "Nine years ago, I did a $2000 research project for v-Fluence, a social media company formed by former Monsanto executives. That's the entirety of my Monsanto relationship."

• Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We're Afraid to Talk About It, 2000, {{ISBN|1-58648-026-X}}
• Pension Fund Politics: The Dangers of Socially Responsible Investing, 2005, {{ISBN|0-8447-4218-X}}
• Scared to Death: How Chemophobia Threatens Public Health, 2011, {{ISBN|978-0-578-07561-7}}
• Let Them Eat Precaution: How Politics is Undermining the Genetic Revolution, 2006, {{ISBN|0-8447-4200-7}}
• Abraham's Children: Race, Identity and the DNA of the Chosen People, 2008, {{ISBN|0-446-58063-5}}
• No Crime But Prejudice: Fischer Homes, the Immigration Fiasco, and Extrajudicial Prosecution, 2009, {{ISBN|978-0-692-00282-7}}
• Crop Chemophobia: Will Precaution Kill the Green Revolution? 2011, {{ISBN|978-0-8447-4361-5}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org www.geneticliteracyproject.org], official website of the Genetic Literacy Project

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Entine, Jon}}

Category:1952 births

Category:Living people

Category:American male journalists

Category:Jewish American journalists

Category:21st-century American Jews

Category:21st-century American journalists

Category:American sustainability advocates

Category:Trinity College (Connecticut) alumni

Category:University of Michigan fellows

Category:Writers from Philadelphia