Clearing The Air

RWJF is doing a little housekeeping, by removing links to records of grants it has provided to smoking ban activists

The only conclusion I can come to is that the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is trying to hide certain grants from the public view because it paints them or the grantee in an unfavorable (biased) light.

What it really comes down to is that Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Johnson & Johnson Company realize it looks inappropriate for the Nicoderm manufacturer to be providing funding to groups which are pushing for a smoking ban agenda.

I'm actually quite flattered that my investigations into the inappropriate relationship between a pharmaceutical nicotine giant and the activists who push lawmakers toward smoking ban legislation is drawing enough of a concern that RWJF is spending the manpower to remove these grant records from its website.

I do have one question though, as a 501.3C doesn't lack of transparency of grant expenditures violate the IRS code?

Here are some Clearing the Air articles where RWJF has removed the links to financial grants for tobacco control activists:

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2005/10/if-non-profits-cant-get-me-to-stop.html

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2005/08/johnson-johnson-lobbying-moneyrwjf.html

I will continue to update the list of articles where links to RWJF grants once existed. The fact that RWJF is trying to hide these grants, certianly seems to be an admission of wrongdoing on their part.

Feel free to drop me a line if you find an inactive RWJF link to any of my articles, also perhaps some regular readers with server space may want to start backing up copies of existing RWJF grants before they all disappear.

posted by marcus aurelius @ 8:10 AM