Soda was demonized by the media and food police groups for years, long before New York City’s Board of Health voted Sept. 13, overwhelmingly approving [1] Michael Bloomberg’s controversial ban on certain sizes of soda.
The
act, which Bloomberg claimed “will save lives,” will prevent the “sale
of sweetened drinks in containers larger than 16 ounces, smaller than
the size of a common soda bottle” at certain establishments. It does not
prevent people from merely buying multiple drinks if they choose,
something Bloomberg admitted [2]on MSNBC in May 2012.
Dr.
Gilbert Ross, medical director for the American Council on Science and
Health (ACSH), has said obesity rates have stabilized nationwide in
recent years and “There is no solid evidence showing that restricting
sodas to a certain size will have the slightest impact on obesity.”
Yet,
Bloomberg and fellow activist Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco have
been called “hero[es]”, by the media, for their attempts to curb obesity
through regulation. The media have accused soda of many things – from
making you fat, to being compared to a toxin like alcohol and tobacco.
They also promoted soda taxation, which CBS labeled “good for the waistline and the bottom line” [3] in 2010.
In May 2012 on CNN’s “Newsroom,” Alina Cho supported Mayor Bloomberg’s soda ban and even played a gross anti-soda ad [4],
created by the government of New York City with taxpayer money, as a
good argument for it. She referred to this ban as “controversial” but
found nothing about it to criticize in her segment.
Over
and over again the media have portrayed soda as bad and in need of
taxing or regulating, while ignoring critics of such regulation or the
personal responsibility for food and beverage consumption.
CNN’s chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta referred to sugar as a “toxin” [5]
on “60 Minutes,” in April 2012. He interviewed Dr. Robert H. Lustig,
MD, of the University of California San Francisco, who compared sugar to
alcohol and tobacco. “Ultimately, this is a public health crisis, and
when there’s a public health crisis you have to do big things and you
have to do them across the board. Tobacco and alcohol are perfect
examples … I think that sugar belongs in this exact same wastebasket.”
MSNBC “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski called San Francisco’s Newsom her “new hero” [6]
in 2010 after his ban on sodas in vending machines. Ironically, one of
the show’s sponsors is Starbucks, no stranger to serving large, sugary
and highly caffeinated drinks.
In
April 2008, ABC went after soda for making people fat. John Berman
criticized soda advertisements on “World News with Charles Gibson”
saying, “If you watch the commercials, soft drinks make us sing, soft drinks make us smile, but researchers say they also make us fat.” [7]Berman
then interviewed activist Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center
for Obesity at Yale University, who proposed a tax on soda and referred
to it as “public health homerun.”
