Atkins Bankruptcy Stories on Low-Substance Diet
Media focus on end to a
craze, but wheres the beef about how business responded with
healthy lifestyle foods?
The Atkins Diet was one of the major players in the American weight
loss debate. Now that the company behind the diet has filed for
bankruptcy, most of the major media wanted a bite of the story. As
Anchor Campbell Brown of NBC Nightly News put it in the Aug. 1
broadcast, Weve all heard the term crash diet, but tonight, news
of a diet crash.
The stories on all three major networks, along with
CNN and Fox News focused little attention on how Atkins was a
prime example of business responding to consumer desires. As the
popularity of the diet grew, stores, restaurants and manufacturers
bent over backwards to accommodate customers. Rather than requiring
regulation to address fears of obesity, the business community was
able to respond quickly and efficiently to a new weight-conscious
market.
Some of the other lessons missed in the buffet of
coverage included:
- Inconsistent
statistics: On the Aug. 1 NBC Nightly News, reporter Bob Faw
cited the high end of the diet fad: A year ago today, according
to one survey, 9 percent of American adults stuck to a low-carb
diet. The same night on ABCs World News Tonight, reporter Dan
Harris choose other numbers. Over the course of last year, the
number of Americans who said they were on a low-carb diet such as
Atkins or the South Beach diet, went from a high of 12 percent all
the way down to 6 percent.
- Find the agenda:
When in doubt, the networks turned to food industry critics for
comment. NBC brought on long-time industry opponent Marion Nestle
and labeled her a Public Health and Nutrition Expert. Had
reporters done their homework, they would have found Nestle has
been a long-term advocate of major government intervention in the
food industry and has advocated taxes and sweeping regulations. In
a Sept. 3, 2004, USA Today story, Nestle complained even when
PepsiCo unveiled its Smart Spot products. The Smart Spot line
included healthier, baked versions of Cheetos and Lays potato
chips, foods Nestle said people shouldnt be eating at all.
- Lame labels:
The same NBC show that gave Nestle such a generic label was quick
to call Center for Consumer Freedom President Rick Berman a Food
Industry Advocate. Oddly enough, that was an improvement. When
Berman was on NBC Nightly News on July 6, he was described as
the man who runs the food industry-funded Center for Consumer
Freedom. NBC never gives anti-food industry spokesmen the same
treatment.
- Words of wisdom:
Reporter Chris Huntington of CNNs Wolf Blitzer Reports
understood the reality of diets better than most. On the Aug. 1
show, he explained: You can lead a horde of people to low carb
diets, you just can't make them eat their products. That logic
escapes the food police who insist on mandating choice and
limiting options.
- Usual Suspects:
Wolf Blitzer Reports raised the question whether the diet
works and almost immediately turned to another food industry
critic, Dr. Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee
for Responsible Medicine. That group, 95 percent of which is made
up of non-doctors, has an extensive anti-industry background and
even fights against drinking milk. A 2001 press release from the
group urged D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams to drop the idea of doing
a Got Milk ad and to consider his constituents' best interests
and not promote milk, a product that makes so many of them sick.
