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December 9, 2003
Bashing Food Companies, With Peter Jennings
Last week we told you about a meeting of the American Public Health Association, whose dietary scolds were getting bolder in their rhetoric and policy proposals. Margo Wootan of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) typified this trend when she declared at the conference: "We have got to move beyond personal responsibility." Watching last night's one-hour ABC News special on obesity, it became clear that Wootan & Co. had convinced Peter Jennings to "move beyond" personal responsibility, too. The program featured the Center for Consumer Freedom's commercial about a fat man suing a scout for selling him cookies, but it was all downhill from there.
Last week we told you about a meeting of the American Public Health Association, whose dietary scolds were getting bolder in their rhetoric and policy proposals. Margo Wootan of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) typified this trend when she declared at the conference: "We have got to move beyond personal responsibility." Watching last night's one-hour ABC News special on obesity, it became clear that Wootan & Co. had convinced Peter Jennings to "move beyond" personal responsibility, too. The program featured the Center for Consumer Freedom's commercial about a fat man suing a scout for selling him cookies, but it was all downhill from there.
The show's title -- "How to get fat without really trying" -- implied right off the bat that Americans are unable to control their waistlines. Along with Wootan, CSPI's Michael Jacobson and his ally Marion Nestle were a constant on-screen presence. They repeatedly insisted that government and industry, not will power or lack of exercise, are to blame for America's love-handles.
To make the case that restaurants and food producers are flat-out evil, Jennings and his producers relied heavily on Jacobson and Wootan -- to the point of seeming a bit embarrassed about it. Jacobson was identified only as an author, and never as CSPI's executive director. Admitting that he and Wootan represent the same activist group apparently would have made ABC's bias too obvious.
Although Jennings acknowledged that America's agricultural system is the envy of the world and has yielded a society where few people ever worry about going hungry, he blamed it -- with help from Nestle -- for producing too much food. He also bought into the counterintuitive complaints (courtesy of Wootan, Jacobson, and Nestle) that food is too convenient, inexpensive, and tasty. By the end of the show, Jennings practically begged the federal government to intervene. Let's hope the Americans who watched have a little more common sense.
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