The academic communityincluding prominent defenders such as H. J. Muller, Loren Eiseley, Clarence Cottam and Frank Eglermostly backed the book's scientific claims and public opinion backed Carson's text. The chemical industry campaign was counterproductive because the controversy increased public awareness of the potential dangers of pesticides, an early example of the Streisand Effect . Pesticide use became a major public issue after a "CBS Reports" television special, "The Silent Spring of Rachel Carson", which was broadcast on April 3, 1963. The program included segments of Carson reading from "Silent Spring" and interviews with other experts, mostly critics including White-Stevens. According to biographer Linda Lear, "in juxtaposition to the wild-eyed, loud-voiced Dr. Robert White-Stevens in white lab coat, Carson appeared anything but the hysterical alarmist that her critics contended". Reactions from the estimated audience of ten to fifteen million were overwhelmingly positive and the program spurred a congressional review of pesticide hazards and the public release of a pesticide report by the President's Science Advisory Committee. Within a year of publication, attacks on the book and on Carson had lost momentum.