The unpardonable distortion of the science in order to protect corporate profits is well known in the tobacco, sugar and GMO industries. In the textbook industry, as long as teachers, even TPRS/CI teachers, connect their instruction in some way to the table of contents of a textbook (which – to a hysterically inaccurate degree – most Scope and Sequence documents are based on), then the textbook corporations will be happy, as they keep a watchful eye on our discussions these days whether we know it or not. However, as soon as a large enough group of language teachers begins to speak out via their ACTIONS in tandem with enlightened administrators against any use of those useless textbook-based Scope and Sequence documents, then an alarming split will have occurred and the textbook companies will become much more protective than they are now of their interests.
The best way to discredit the science in the industries mentioned above was always to hire and buy PhDs and MDs to write counter-articles to the publications of the pure, unbought scientists and thereby create confusion so that the national health governing bodies (FDA, NIH) could never come out and say directly that tobacco or sugar or GMOs caused human suffering and disease. Their job is to sow confusion. The science eventually prevailed in the tobacco industry. Harm to the American people is much more difficult to prove in the sugar industry because the power of the food industry is incalculably big. I don’t know about the GMO/Monsanto position these days, but I think that they are getting some good pushback from a growing organic farming movement. But the textbook companies, as long as language teachers continue to try to use CI to align with curriculum documents in the form of S/S docs, pacing guides, etc., will leave us alone because we are being good soldiers and their profits are still over a billion dollars a year.
In the tobacco and sugar and GMO arenas, the pure scientists were alway easily discredited by those on the take of corporate payoffs. The pure scientists were always made to look slightly kooky and off their rockers and will continue to be a happy as the Jabba the Hut kind of entities that they are. But when enough of us stop aligning our language instruction to a curriculum/table of contents, Jabba will wake up and object. I can’t wait to stick my own fork in him but I’ll be wearing a gas mask.
In the meantime, dudes like this guy will continue to be (I am guessing in this case but look at the content of the article!) on the take:
http://www.professorjackrichards.com/wp-content/uploads/role-of-textbooks.pdf