The holidays are over and millions have resolved to lose the
weight we just gained. As we head into the new year, the major media
will make you think twice about the whole concept of holiday
stuffing. How do we know? Our analysis shows that this is the
medias pattern.
Weve analyzed how the major media treated the issue of obesity for
the last year and a half. The result? The major media are more
likely to turn the holiday season into open season on the food
industry than into a time to eat, drink, and be merry.
Its the new battle of the bulge. Anti-corporate activists have
seized upon Americas worries about weight to launch a campaign
against the companies that produce the food that feeds us all. They
blame U.S. businesses for the obesity epidemic and say it can best
be cured through a diet of new taxes, more regulations, and
lawyer-enriching lawsuits. One well-known activist even complained
that healthier versions of traditional snack foods were bad because
they were foods we shouldnt be eating at all.
These activists have succeeded at getting their agenda out because
the major media have done a poor job covering the issue. The Media
Research Centers Business & Media Institute analyzed all news stories
about obesity published in The New York Times and USA Today or aired
on the three broadcast network evening news shows for one-and-a-half
years. The first analysis was from May 1, 2003 through April 30,
2004. The second covered the next six months and, unfortunately,
shows the media havent changed their tune much.
In the first study, about half of the 205 stories debated the causes
of obesity. Of these, a large majority (64 percent) blamed our
nations weight problems on food companies rather than on personal
behavior. While this has improved in our second study, its still a
problem. The concept of personal responsibility still hasnt taken
hold in U.S. newsrooms.
For example, on the March 9, 2004 World News Tonight, ABC reporter
Lisa Stark linked the food industrys behavior with poor health:
Its estimated 64 percent of Americans weigh too much. That
increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease, and some form of
cancer. Those who help people lose weight say theyre not surprised
by the new numbers. The food industry spends $34 billion a year to
market its products. The notion that food industry advertising
causes obesity is a key argument of the anti-corporate activists.
A couple weeks earlier, on the Feb. 24 CBS Evening News, Elizabeth Kaledin framed an entire story around a negative report from the
Center for Science in the Public Interest charging that childrens
menus at restaurants such as Outback and Red Lobster were dominated
by unhealthy choices. Move over, McNuggets, Kaledin crowed.
Theres a new food villain in town. New research finds kids meals
at many popular restaurant chains are loaded with more fat and
calories than the average fast-food fare.
Story after story cited food experts who criticized the food
industry for making, of all things, what we want to eat. The media
compounded the problem by treating these talking heads like
disinterested bystanders, not activists or experts pushing only
one view.
No doubt, obesity is an important health problem. But out of 302
stories, only one report tried to put the alarming statistics into
context. Until 1998, a 5-foot-5 woman who weighed 164 pounds was
considered normal, USA Todays Nancy Hellmich and Rita Rubin
explained in a June 16, 2003 article. Then the official body mass
index (weight/height) criteria changed, and all of a sudden she was
considered overweight if she weighed 150 pounds. The guidelines
labeled another 29 million people as overweight. Now, almost 65
percent of Americans weigh too much.
Unfortunately, Hellmich was one of several reporters who couldnt
decide which statistics to use for childhood obesity. An assortment
of health and obesity stories claim everything from 15 percent to
more than 30 percent of children and adolescents aged 6 to 19 are
overweight. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the actual
number is about 16 percent, or about half what is claimed in several
stories.
This combination of poor facts, a reliance on activists to set the
agenda, and a strong anti-business approach is a recipe for
continued bad coverage of obesity. Its time for the media to shape
up and try feeding us more balanced coverage.
For more information on the two obesity studies please go to:
Supersized Bias II
May-October 2004
SUPERSIZED BIAS
Big Medias Role In Covering And Promoting the Obesity Debate
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Herman Cain, former president and chairman of Godfather's Pizza,
Inc., former senate candidate in Georgia, and former CEO of the
National Restaurant Association, is now the national chairman of the
Media Research Center's Business & Media Institute. Dan Gainor is director
of the Business & Media Institute (www.businessandmedia.org).
This op-ed ran in the January 7, 2005 edition of Investors Business Daily.
