Speakers bureaus getting some heat in Boston

It's not like it's anything new, but for some reason this made the front page of the Boston Globe yesterday: 60 doctors took speaker fees from drug giant

The docs on the bureaus defend the practice, the medical centers are looking into the ethics of it all, etc., etc. What I find peculiar is that pharma companies are sending invitations to join to outspoken critics of the practice, such as Dr. Daniel Carlat, a Tufts University Medical School professor. While the Globe simply says that he declined, his blog posts about it make for some interesting reading (see posts here, here, and here).