Americans innocent, but guilty from eating
Journalists continue to pound people about diet, so is it any wonder we don’t like food any more?

By Ken Shepherd
Business & Media Institute
April 19, 2006

     “We’re Eating More, and Enjoying It Less,” blared the headline for Candy Sagon’s Food section article in the April 19 Washington Post. Is it any wonder why with the media’s persistent attacks on the food industry?

     “According to a new Pew Research Center survey, only 39 percent of Americans say they greatly enjoy eating – a drop from the 48 percent who felt that way” in a 1989 Gallup poll, Sagon reported, noting the number among those who “consider themselves overweight” is significantly lower than 17 years ago.

     “People are feeling guilty,” Sagon quoted Thomas Wadden of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, adding, “They’re forever checking their conscience before digging into that ice cream sundae.”

     News outlets like The New York Times are helping to pile on the guilt, while driving readers away from personal responsibility by blaming fast food makers themselves.

     The same day as Sagon’s Post article, The New York Times ran a story critical of McDonald’s fast food restaurants for beefing up its bottom line by aggressively marketing its dollar-menu items to young people.

     “McDonald’s has marketed the Dollar Menu to teenagers, young adults and minorities who are already plagued with an especially high incidence of obesity,” complained Times writer Melanie Warner.

     Warner went on to cite critics of the fast food industry, including Jerome Williams, a communications professor at The University of Texas at Austin. Williams attacked McDonalds for making “Big Macs and double cheeseburgers” seem “fun and exciting” to young black and Hispanic consumers. Williams called that marketing demographic a “segment where you have these huge obesity issues.”

     The Business & Media Institute has previously documented Warner’s slanted reporting, on soft drink and fast food producers. The Business & Media Institute also has released special reports on the media’s coverage of the so-called obesity epidemic.