Media Story on Antibiotic Use in the Livestock Industry Garners Little Attention
General media hardly reacted to CBS story.
Compiled by staff
Published: Feb 25, 2010
The CBS Evening News recently aired a two-part story on antibiotics in livestock production. The story has concerned many agricultural producers, but Pork Checkoff spokesman Mike Wegner says it didn't get much reaction in the general media.
"There's been very little public reaction to the story," Wegner said. "We monitor very carefully both social media as well as print and broadcast and found that there were less than a handful of CBS stations that did their own stories about the CBS report even though they were all encouraged to by CBS National, and the other traffic has been very, very quiet."
Antibiotic use in animal agriculture is a very complex issue and difficult to explain in a short television news story. Wegner says the story lacked any attempt at balance.
"When you get called by a national television network you sort of assume that it's not going to be a great story for the livestock industry but it was important to us to participate with their reporting just to make sure we had the best opportunity possible to tell our side of the story," Wegner said. "Liz Wagstrom went to New York at pork industry expense and did a 70 minute interview with Katie Couric, and I think appeared for less than 30 seconds the first day and less than that on the second day. Those were really the only participants in the story that had a view other than the view that CBS News was espousing."
A coalition of agriculture groups, including the National Pork Board, has voiced its disappointment in the CBS Evening News story.
"I think everyone who is involved in the production of animals for food has an interest in this story," Wegner said. "Many of those were also upset with the way the issue was presented by CBS. I think there were about a dozen or so ag associations who drafted a letter and sent it to the president of CBS News just expressing very specifically the problems that livestock agriculture had with those stories."
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Tagged: SURE, checkoff, antibiotic use
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