ABSTRACT
It was common during the 1960s and 1970s for academicians on opposing sides of a political controversy to circulate petitions favoring their particular position, often publishing these as advertisements in The Sunday New York Times, a tactic no longer in vogue. The maintenance of a stratified political system in science, and perhaps its origin, likely follows from the relatively closed social world of prestigious scientists whose careers, from student days onward, are bounded. The linkage among similar risk stories was noted by Lawless in his study of health risks of technology reported in the news of the 1950s and 1960s. This chapter shows that activists moving from one controversy to another, taking predictable sides. It also shows journalists regarding a novel warning as newsworthy simply because it is reminiscent of another warning earlier reported, or because the new warning resonates with a larger issue currently in the news. These linkages illuminate the often-ignored superstructure of controversies, whereby one affects another.
