By Michael Miner

But the byline was a mistake, and financial editor Dan Miller corrected it. When Milloy returned to the Sun-Times last week, an editor’s note at the end of the article told us that he’s “a Washington-based business writer specializing in science. He holds advanced degrees in health sciences from Johns Hopkins University and a law degree from Georgetown University.”

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Something else Sun-Times readers might like to know about Milloy is that he’s an adjunct scholar at the libertarian Cato Institute. As it happens, the other day he deeply embarrassed the institute.

Some readers might care that as recently as 1997 Milloy was a Washington lobbyist. His clients–according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks such things–included the American Petroleum Institute, the FMC Corporation, the Fort Howard Corporation, the International Food Additives Council, and Monsanto.

Miller doesn’t buy that, and he’s glad Milloy doesn’t either. “‘These utilities are sending acid rain over the northeast,’” says Miller, aping the EPA line. “It’s picked up and reported as the most objective kind of truth, and you’ll find it in 99 of 100 newspapers. To say that that is objective in some sense is an absolutely and utterly hypocritical statement. People who print that are reporting it because they’re biased toward the point of view that EPA can do no wrong. EPA’s own research shows there’s no way of knowing if what’s happening on the east coast has its origins in the midwest.”

Either the New York Times is a fussbudget about trivial details, or Milloy has a shaky grip on the principle of full disclosure. Reporting on 2,4-D, for example, he quoted Michael Gough, whom he identified as “a former government researcher.” Gough also happens to be Milloy’s colleague at the Cato Institute and his frequent writing partner. They’ve collaborated on articles, papers, and the recent book Silencing Science.

“This guy’s no journalist,” says Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group. “He’s a paid professional debunker.”