If you found yourself channel surfing last Friday night, chances are you tuned into the one-hour global telethon “Stand Up to Cancer 2010,” since it aired on almost every network TV station, including ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox. Hosted by Diane Sawyer, Brian Williams and Katie Couric and co-founded by the Entertainment Industry Foundation, “SU2C” featured a bevy of celebrities who banded together to encourage viewers to donate money to find the cure for cancer.
Despite their charm and good looks, however, starlets such as Reese Witherspoon made no mention of the actual causes of cancer. “‘SU2C’ claims to be pursuing a cure for cancer as if it were just one disease with a single etiology, but it’s not,” says ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. “For instance, if you watched the show, you would never know that 38 percent of cancers are caused by smoking cigarettes.”
“Indeed, the link between smoking and lung cancer was blatantly downplayed for a cancer awareness campaign such as this one,” agrees ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross.
