If network bias was measured in calories, then NBC Nightly News would be a double bacon cheeseburger.
On May 25, both NBC and CBS’s evening news broadcasts ran stories about a “study” by the left-leaning Center for Science in the Public Interest showing the unhealthiest chain restaurant meals, and both broadcasts were dripping with bias.
If network bias was measured in calories, then NBC Nightly News would be a double bacon cheeseburger.
On May 25, both NBC and CBS’s evening news broadcasts ran stories about a “study” by the left-leaning Center for Science in the Public Interest showing the unhealthiest chain restaurant meals, and both broadcasts were dripping with bias.
In over four and half minutes, NBC and CBS showed interviews with CSPI director Michael Jacobson and called out chain food restaurants from PF Chang’s to President Obama’s beloved Five Guys Burgers, but failed to interview any experts with an opposing viewpoint and tossed around misleading facts. NBC presented statements from several restaurant chains that stressed the healthy, low-cal items they also offer, but questioned neither CSPI’s study nor its intentions in continually badgering consumers and businesses.
“Try to enjoy your dinner … if you can,” CBS reporter Richard Schlessinger chided at the end of his report.
However, the most glaring issues of bias were in the NBC report, beginning with Brian Williams’s introduction:
“And then about once a year, a group comes along to warn us all and tell us exactly what’s in what we’re eating.”
In fact, CSPI’s finger-wagging food police comer around far more often than that. In the past year alone CSPI has told us what’s in our [1]school lunches and [2]movie theatre popcorn. This is also the same CSPI that, unchallenged by the media, pushes for [3]greater regulation of food.
Additionally, this isn’t the only time the networks have tried to “warn” us about what’s in our food, having warned us about everything from [4]fruits and vegetables to [5]salads.
Fittingly, NBC‘s George Lewis concluded his report with an erroneous statement, saying food item calories are, “A weighty issue for Americans as this country’s obesity rates just keep rising.”
On the contrary, obesity rates have actually leveled off recent years. In fact, several news outlets ran stories about the [6]obesity plateau, including Lewis’s [7]own network.
According to Jeff Stier, Associate Director of the American Council on Science and Health, this report is just the latest in the media’s attempts to attack the food business.
“Obesity rates are not rising and for the media to continue to report that they are is misleading,” said Stier. “It’s another example of the media’s agenda that supports government regulation in the food industry.”