Media Bias

Recently for my Journalism 101 class I was assigned to write a paper about an issue that is important to me and how the mass media treats that issue.l Of course I chose the beef industry. I admitted up front that I was a producer, so I may be harsh on the articles sometimes, but I did say that I demand the truth like any other consumer. What was interesting was not that the professor that graded my paper agreed that I was biased, but the questions that she wrote on the side asking about anti-biotics and E-Coli. She also wanted specific examples of where the media had been dead wrong, so this was the paragraph I added:

The media is often wrong about the stories they publish regarding the beef industry. They reflect my industry as cold money-hungry factory farmers. Often the stories they chose to print point out the problems of one specific operation and apply that problem to all producers.

For example in Michael Pollan’s article “Power Steer”, published in the New York Times on March 2002, he says about the industry as a whole: “And how cheap, really, is cheap feedlot beef? Not cheap at all, when you add in the invisible costs: of antibiotic resistance, environmental degradation, heart disease, E. coli poisoning, corn subsidies, imported oil and so on.” Each of the things he listed is an insulting biased opinion, not a fact. Beef Producers follow strict guidelines about withdrawal time, so virtually no antibiotic is in the meat. Producers are also mandated by the government to make certain their operations follow certain environmental guidelines. No conclusive study by an unbiased organization has linked heart disease and red meat. E coli poisoning is often caused by undercooked meat, something the rancher has no control over, and corn subsidies and imported oil are beyond the rancher’s ability to change. This kind of misunderstanding printed in the media leads to decline in consumers’ trust of the safest beef supply in the world. This is only one example from the New York Times, other magazines including Time’s “The Real Cost of Cheap Food” by Bryan Walsh (published in August 2009) are following the trendy vegetarian lifestyle, and printing opinion based stories. Newspapers and magazines do not often print stories of the positive events occurring in the industry.

I hope she is willing to email me again to hear more about what I do everyday. It just goes to show that consumers are curious, and want to know about the beef they love to eat. I'm excited she recognized my passion and wanted to learn more. So stand up for what you do, you never know where the next question is coming from.

'till the cows come home

Ellie