This wasn’t an easy decision but I fear it’s the only one I could have made. Seed Media Group’s decision to sell space on this network for a Pepsi infomercial was a slap in the face to everything I had believed in and worked so hard to attain. I wanted to be here because there was no better place to communicate science. The reputation that ScienceBlogs had built meant that you could trust the veracity and the integrity of those who appeared on the network. It was this reputation that Pepsi wanted to buy and which Seed was only too happy to sell them.
Eric Johnson explains his rationale for leaving ScienceBlogs. After the blowup last week over the Pepsi Co. deal Seed Media made it is no surprise. This is what happens when you attempt to use individual reputations to legitimate corporate public relations.