On his MSNBC program PoliticsNation on Thursday night, the Rev. Al Sharpton shamelessly promoted Michelle Obama’s school-lunch programming and taunted conservatives with a new poll that apparently shows the First Lady’s efforts are popular. The New York Times promoted this result, too, from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
Neither MSNBC nor the Times stepped outside the Obama orbit to realize the Kellogg Foundation is an official partner in Mrs. Obama’s lunch campaign – so the poll might be a little less than independent.
Here’s how Sharpton pitched it: “The White House is cooking up some progress on healthy school lunches and childhood obesity. First lady Michelle Obama has been leading the charge with her Let's Move and Healthy Eating campaigns. She even enlisted some Dr. Seuss for some help.”
After a soundbite of Dr. Seuss poetry on vegetables, Sharpton ran a series of conservative soundbites from Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin, and Tucker Carlson assailing the lunch standards as an attack on freedom. Then Sharpton brought the “facts” to the right-wingers:
SHARPTON: All this over getting kids to eat their fruits and veggies? But a new poll shows Americans like what Michelle Obama has on the menu. Since the new school nutrition standards were adopted, 67% say school meals are excellent or good. That's up 26% in [from] 2010. A whopping 86% say the standards should stay the same or even be strengthened. Maybe the right wingers should let those facts marinade for a bit. Did they think we wouldn't notice they're just hungry for attention? Nice try! But here's some food for thought. We got you.
Sharpton was probably cribbing from Ron Nixon serving as Michelle’s press aide at The New York Times:
WASHINGTON — A majority of Americans support providing schoolchildren with healthy meals that consist of more fruits and vegetables and fewer foods high in calories and sodium, according to a national poll released on Tuesday by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.
Legislation signed in 2010 by President Obama required schools to update their nutritional standards for the first time in 15 years. The law was championed by Michelle Obama, the first lady, as part of her “Let’s Move” campaign.
According to the poll, 86 percent of Americans support the nutritional standards required by the law.
Two-thirds of Americans say the nutritional quality of food served in public school cafeterias is excellent or good, which is up from 26 percent when a similar poll was conducted in 2010, before the new standards were adopted.
Before we get to the Kellogg-Michelle ties, can’t we just wonder about the polling here? Who is going to say they oppose healthy lunches for children? It’s like taking a poll to see who hates kindness to puppies. It’s a little sleazy to take a Yes to this question as a Yes for Team Obama.
The Kellogg Foundation runs the Partnership for a Healthier America to promote Michelle’s initiatives:
Founded in 2010 in conjunction with – but independent from – Let’s Move!, PHA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit that is led by some of the nation’s most respected health and childhood obesity advocates. Supporting our effort is our honorary chair First Lady Michelle Obama, alongside our honorary vice-chairmen The Honorable William H. Frist, MD, and US Senator Cory A. Booker (D-NJ).
Neither MSNBC nor the Times noticed that perhaps people who were agreeing in the poll to the notion that the quality of lunches has improved didn’t have to actually know anything about school lunches.
After they asked if school lunches were more nutritious they asked how much they knew about the issue and the respondent breakdown was: 15 percent said “a great deal,” 41 percent said “some,” 28 percent said “not too much,” 11 percent said “nothing at all,” and five percent said “not sure.”
So even if we count “some” as a defensive answer, 44 percent didn’t profess they had any knowledge of what they were assessing.
And at the bottom of the survey, they found only 25 percent of the survey respondents presently have a child in a public school, which might make them seem less than an expert in the current quality of school lunches.
