The unchecked power of philanthropy
Bloomberg Philanthropies’ crusade against vaping is doing more harm than good.
This is an edited version of a talk that I gave via Zoom to the Global Nicotine Forum in Warsaw, Poland, on June 17, 2022.
If anyone had told me two years ago that I would write many thousands of words about e-cigarettes and be invited to speak at a conference about nicotine, I would not have believed it.
I hadn’t smoked since college. I had never tried an e-cigarette. I’m still not sure I could pick a Puff Bar or a Vuse out of a lineup of e-cigarettes.
So what led me here?
I’ve been a reporter for a long time. Not quite 50 years but close. I’ve written about politics, government, sports, business, media and the environment. In 2015, I turned to the world of philanthropy and began contributing to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, a US publication that covers foundations and nonprofits.
I had personal connections to philanthropy. My wife, brother and oldest daughter all worked for nonprofits or advocacy groups. The sector needed more journalistic scrutiny, I thought. I could see that foundations and nonprofits lacked the feedback loops that, at least in theory, work to hold businesses and even governments accountable.
