FDA denies allegations of forcing Fox News at CBER campus

May 5, 2017 By Brad Perriello

By Brad Perriello, with contributions from Fink Densford

The FDA today denied allegations that it is forcing television monitors at its Center for Biologics Evaluation & Research campus to be set to only the Fox News Channel.

“There was no directive or memorandum from the Administration that went out to employees about broadcast news channels displaying on monitors in common areas throughout the FDA’s White Oak campus,” an FDA spokesperson wrote to MassDevice.com in an email.

Allegations arose today from a twitter report which referenced a letter supposedly sent to all researchers at the CBER indicating that all monitors would be changed from CNN to Fox, which was picked up in a Wall Street Journal report.

“The reason for the change is that a decision from the current administration administrative [sic] officials has requested that all monitors, under our control, on the White Oak Campus, display FOX news,” according to a screenshot of the email published on Twitter.

“Sorry for the inconvenience, but I am unable to change any of the monitors to any other news source at this time,” the official wrote, according to the twitter report.

The federal watchdog said that the email was from a customer service representative from the FDA’s Office of Facilities responding to a group of employees, and that a variety of news shows, including CNN, MSNBC and Fox News, are displayed on the monitors in common areas of the campus.

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