NGOs often get an easy ride from the media compared with industry and government, a panel of journalists told an international forum on corporate responsibility and sustainability on Thursday, Canada’s The Gazette reports.

In the final panel discussion of Tremblant Forum 07, Marc Gunther, senior writer for Fortune magazine, told participants that some of his best friends, including his wife and daughter, work for NGOs.

“That said, I think we in the press give them entirely too much credibility. Their agendas are often not pure, often it’s about raising their own profile, raising money, attracting members,” The Gazette reports Gunther as saying.

In an era when everyone gets spun – by business, government and interest groups – the best tool a journalist has is a well-tuned “B.S. indicator,” said Toby Heaps, editor of Corporate Knights Inc. and a panelist on the role of the media in driving the sustainability agenda.