Breastfeeding Advocates Red-Flag ABC News Story

(April 21) -- An international breastfeeding advocacy group is accusing ABC News of failing to reveal that a pediatrician it quoted in a report critical of a breastfeeding study is a formula industry spokeswoman.

"In the future, please take into account physicians' formula industry ties before reporting on breastfeeding," the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine's president, Jerry Calnen, wrote in a letter to ABC News President David Westin this week.

The ABC News report was on a study published in the journal Pediatrics earlier this month, finding that low breastfeeding success rates in the United States cost the country about $13 billion and contribute to more than 900 infant deaths each year.

In its report, ABC News quoted Dr. Lillian Beard as saying that the $13 billion estimate is "a very impressive number."

"But I want to know: Did the study take into account the cost for breastfeeding mothers?" Beard added.

"I think this report puts an unfair slant on it," she told ABC News at the time. "It's not taking into account that for almost two-thirds of U.S. families, women are either the co-breadwinner or the breadwinner. Returning to work is germane for the survival of the family."

ABC News identified Beard as an associate clinical professor of pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences and an assistant professor at the Howard University College of Medicine. It did not note that Beard is a paid speaker for the leading infant formula manufacturer, Nestle, and sits on a Nestle advisory board. She also is a consultant for the International Formula Council.

"Dr. Beard's ties to the formula industry are a clear conflict of interest," Calnen wrote in the letter to ABC, released on the academy's website and Facebook fan page. "Readers deserve to know when a reporter is quoting an industry spokesperson."

Reached at her pediatric practice in Maryland today, Beard told AOL News she is on Nestle's advisory board but noted that she was contacted directly by ABC News for comment on the study and was not speaking on behalf of any formula company.

"I am a practicing pediatrician of 37 years, and I am a strong advocate of breastfeeding," she said in the telephone interview. "Breastfeeding is the gold standard. Mother's milk is the gold standard.

"I was speaking specifically about the fact that mothers have to return to work, and about the obstacles they face," she continued. "... These are the hidden -- the not-spoken-about -- costs that mothers go through to provide their babies with breast milk. At no time did I advocate stopping breastfeeding. ... In no way did I discredit the study -- what I said was that the study does not take into account the costs for moms who do continue breastfeeding."

ABC News did not respond to several e-mails sent by AOL News to its media relations department for comment. Beard said she was called by an ABC News reporter for comment and was not asked about her industry ties, which she noted are "open information," or available online.

She said she does not believe her work for Nestle "had any relevance to this comment" she made in the ABC News report.

Beard's ties to the formula industry came to light when several bloggers wrote about the issue after the ABC News report, according to the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, an international doctors' organization founded in 1994 to advocate for breastfeeding.

Kelly McBride, the ethics group leader for journalism training and education center the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., said reporters are responsible for noting any industry ties when quoting people as experts.

"A good journalist will not only reveal the information, but also the actual source of the information," she told AOL News. "Of course, this includes industry ties. ... This allows viewers or readers to decide for themselves about whether the information is credible."