Whether you’re a Trump fan or not is irrelevant when it comes to the mainstream media’s role in his election. There was much inaugural hand-wringing and self-ex­am­­ination of the inadvertent role media played by covering every tweet and provocative campaign com­ment.

Yet many of the same media outlets and others play a similarly complicit role in the marketing of food fear, causing hand-wringing on the part of consumers who may reject a food for no good reason for fear of potential health issues that range from joint pain to death.

By publishing anything claiming to have a whiff of scientific basis, assigning it a nefarious headline and relinquishing responsibility to verify its legitimacy, media counter their own noble pursuit by contributing to consumer confusion instead of being a beacon of clear, reliable information.

“Carcinogenic pesticide found in Ben &...