The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
A Fortune in business coverage and intelligent ways to cut poverty; predictable reactions to the childhood food pyramid; and misinterpreting a global warming study.

Oct. 5, 2005

     The after-effects of Katrina coverage continue to dominate the news. But this past week, both Fortune magazine and ABC News used the opportunity to do strong stories about how private industry and the free market can respond better than government.

And speaking of government, media reaction to a new government food pyramid for kids and a climate study of the North Pole both showed how poorly journalists can cover such issues.

The Good
     1) The October 3 issue of Fortune magazine took an unusual approach. It delved into the successes of Katrina, not the failures. In a cover project headlined “Government Broke Down. Business Stepped Up,” Fortune staff profiled the crisis response by major businesses such as FedEx, Wal-Mart and Home Depot. Page after page showed that private industry excelled at crisis management, a lesson that many in the media should learn.

     2) ABC’s “World News Tonight” took a “Closer Look” at poverty and ways to rein it in. The segment profiled two programs, one emphasizing education and the other a focus on “high expectations” and “restoring self esteem” to workers. Both projects provide the classic hand up advocated by President George Bush, not the handout that is the position of big-government liberals. ABC deserves credit for not promoting government solutions that have been proven to fail.

The Bad
     The new childhood food pyramid had the news media jumping on the anti-obesity bandwagon. The Washington Post and NBC’s “Today” both did their part to skew the debate. The Post turned to the radical pro-vegan and anti-food industry group Center for Science in the Public Interest for comment, portraying them as “a Washington-based nutrition advocacy group.” While “Today” did mention that organic foods are more expensive, it didn’t point out that such costs would be borne by taxpayers.

The Ugly
     Global warming advocates are far more predictable than the weather. It doesn’t matter what the environmental news says, they’ll try to claim that it points to climate change – even when that’s not the case. Last week, ABC and The New York Times seized a new study of Arctic ice patterns to proclaim the end of the North Pole.
ABC’s Bill Blakemore reported on the September 29 “World News Tonight” that creatures living in the icy water were “in enormous peril” because of warming. However, scientists on both sides of the issue pointed out this was a study of seasonal change and that reactions like Blakemore’s were overblown.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly tracks the best and worst media coverage of business and economics. Readers are invited to submit suggestions or news tips to Director Dan Gainor at dgainor@mediaresearch.org.