As I said yesterday on Twitter, a big conflict of interest and transparency problem has arisen on ScienceBlogs. Like several other bloggers here, I'm now on a hiatus, however like like David Dobb's and Blake Stacy's, my hiatus from ScienceBlogs will be permanent. I've been contemplating a move from ScienceBlogs for a while for several reasons, but PepsiGate has sealed the deal for me. Several of my ScienceBlogs colleagues have summed up the situation well, including PZ Myers, GrrlScientist, and Brian over at Laelaps. For a full recap of the issue and other ScienceBloggers' responses, see this post from today's Guardian. For a clear explanation of the ethical problems that make it so I will no longer be affiliated with Science Blogs, see this from the Knight Journalism Tracker: "ScienceBlogs Trashes its Bloggers' Credibility."
I'm now looking for a new permanent home for my blog. For now, I have moved Culture Dish onto my website, where I'll be posting until further notice. You can follow me there via RSS feed, and of course, you can also follow me on Twitter and Facebook.
UPDATE: The Guardian has just posted this letter sent to all ScienceBlogs bloggers today by Adam Bly, head of Seed Media Group and ScienceBlogs.
Update 2: See the Knight Journalism Tracker's response to Adam Bly's email linked above.
Update 3: ScienceBloggers have just received a note from Adam Bly saying that in response to all of this, ScienceBlogs has begun making changes to the Pepsi blog, including adding a statement about conflict of interest and funding, adding a banner labeling it as "Advertorial."
Update 4: Adam Bly just announced via email that the PepsiCo blog has now been canceled.
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