October 29, 2010 3:45PM 

# ‘What Can We Get Away With?’ 

By [Walter Olson](https://www.cato.org/people/walter-olson) 

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A *New York Times* account, based on an open-records request, [sheds light on](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/29/nyregion/29fat.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all) how Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s [famously](http://overlawyered.com/2006/09/nyc-plans-to-ban-trans-fats/) [nannyish](https://www.cato.org/bootleggers-baptists-sugary-soda-edition/) [health department](http://overlawyered.com/2006/05/nyc-plans-interventions-with-diabetics/) makes up its mind how far to go in food-scare advertising. In particular, a proposed [YouTube campaign](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F4t8zL6F0c) to scare consumers away from sweetened sodas resulted in

> a protracted dispute in the department over the scientific validity of directly linking sugar consumption to weight gain — one in which the city’s health commissioner, Dr. Thomas A. Farley, overruled three subordinates, including his chief nutritionist.

Some highlights:

- “The scientists, she said \[nutritionist Cathy Nonas\], ‘will make mincemeat of us.’”
- “‘Basic premise doesn’t work,’ Dr. Michael Rosenbaum, a professor of pediatrics and clinical medicine at Columbia”
- “‘The science \[i.e., efforts to be more accurate and precise in conveying the science\] absolutely weakens our potential for mass distribution,’ \[campaign manager Sabira\] Taher wrote.”
- “‘I think this is broad enough to get away with,’ \[Nonas\] wrote \[of the final video\].”

Isn’t it comforting to think that the city administration of New York — and its federal counterpart, staffed by very similar sorts of activist officials — are also in charge of regulating *private* advertising of food and many other products to make sure such ads are fair and not misleading?

##### Related Tags 

[Health Care](https://www.cato.org/health-care), [Regulation](https://www.cato.org/regulatory-studies) 

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