ABC Labels Litigious
Food Police a Consumer Group
Industry critic CSPIs lawsuit escaped
critical review on World News Tonight
By Ken Shepherd
Business & Media Institute
June 14, 2006
ABCs Charlie Gibson promised his June 13 World News
Tonight viewers a look at why a leading consumer group has a bone
to pick over the fat in KFC food. But that organization was none
other than the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an
anti-food industry group that has had a beef with everything from
movie theater popcorn to
soda pop.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest is taking KFC to
court over the trans fat used to fry the chicken, Gibson noted as
he introduced a segment by correspondent Elisabeth Leamy. The
consumer group says trans fat is killing a lot of Americans.
Leamy began her story by pitting the fast food chicken chains
slogan against CSPIs harsh rhetoric. KFC says we do chicken right,
but the chain fries its food in oil loaded in trans fat, Leamy
added, complaining of the partially hydrogenated oil the restaurant
uses.
The ABC reporter then showed CSPI Executive Director Michael
Jacobson blasting the food chain: If they had a conscience, they
wouldnt use it, he charged.
Contrary to the consumer group label Leamy affixed to CSPI, her
reporting made it clear Jacobsons complaint wasnt with consumers
being uninformed about health risks from trans fats, but with the
consumers choices to consume them nonetheless.
KFC says it discloses its trans fat levels online and in each
restaurant, Leamy conceded, but quickly added CSPIs rebuttal. In
the hamburger chains, the trans fat is in the side dishes. At KFC,
its in the main course and some of the side dishes, Jacobson
griped.
In a
press release that began gleefully with the line See you in
court, Colonel Sanders, Jacobson defended his lawsuit against Yum
Brands, (NYSE:
YUM) KFCs parent company.
CSPI would far prefer the trans-fat problem be solved through
voluntary action by restaurants or regulatory action by the FDA, but
neither industry nor government has acted, he complained.
Leamy left out how
CSPI
has attacked KFC before over its advertising, nor did she bring in
any legal experts critical of CSPIs litigation.
In May, the Business & Media Institute
published two stories on how
ABC and
CBS
papered over CSPIs litigious agenda.
