Article Review | The Daily Pitchfork

Rated: C

Article Review:

"Let Them Eat Foie Gras"

The New York Times - Jan 13, 2015

Is Bittman’s Latest New York Times’ Column Right? Is Foie Gras Unimportant?

By James McWilliams, January 14, 2015 // 12 Comments

Mark Bittman’s recent column on California’s overturn of the state’s foie gras ban is—for lack of a better term—weird. Really weird. The gist is that Bittman thinks we’re paying too much attention to the cruelty of foie... [View more]

Rated: B

Article Review:

"Here's What Starbucks' Sweeping New Animal Welfare Standards Really Mean"

The Village Voice - Jan 12, 2015

Village Voice Gives Voice To Voiceless

By James McWilliams, January 13, 2015 // 3 Comments

Kudos to Village Voice writer Sara Ventiera for a thorough update on Starbucks’ plans to implement a new set of animal welfare standards. Ventiera notes that while the company has earned its share of flack in recent years, its animal welfare move could assuage... [View more]

Rated: C

Article Review:

"All The News That's Fit To Eat"

Civil Eats - Jan 09, 2015

Civil Eats Further Scrambles An Already Rotten Egg Story

By James McWilliams, January 12, 2015 // 0 Comments

Here’s how the media hierarchy often works: a global authority (say the New York Times) covers a story, the story hits the media radar, and smaller outlets pick it up, paraphrase it, and run it on their own sites. As a rumor churns through a mill, so goes a story... [View more]

Rated: D

Article Review:

"Animal Rights Group’s Video of Hens Raises Questions, but Not Just for Farms"

New York Times - Jan 09, 2015

New York Times Chickens Out on Brutal Video

By James McWilliams, January 10, 2015 // 26 Comments

Early last week the animal activist group Direct Action Everywhere released a harrowing video based on an undercover investigation of Petaluma Farms, a Northern California operation that supplies eggs to Whole Foods and Organic Valley. In it, hundreds of chickens are shown... [View more]

Rated: C

Article Review:

"End to California foie gras ban sends chefs, activists scrambling"

Reuters - Jan 09, 2015

Unlucky Ducks

By James McWilliams, January 9, 2015 // 4 Comments

An article in Reuters covering the reaction to California’s overturn of its foie gras ban—a piece that has been replicated throughout the media landscape—made a critical and very common error. The writers explain, “As chefs in California hurried to... [View more]

Rated: F

Article Review:

"Know What Kind of Life Your Dinner Lived"

Whole Foods - Jan 08, 2015

Activists Crack Open Whole Foods’ Humane Egg Claims

By James McWilliams, January 8, 2015 // 2 Comments

This new Whole Foods ad appeals to the increasingly popular dictum to know where your food comes from. It reads: “Know What Kind Of Life Your Dinner Lived.” On the face of it, the movement to better understand the inner-workings of the food system is a noble... [View more]

Rated: C

Article Review:

"Bones, Broth, Bliss"

New York Times - Jan 07, 2015

Boning Up On The Facts

By James McWilliams, January 7, 2015 // 1 Comment

In today’s New York Times “Food” section, Julia Moskin, in an article titled “Bones, Broth, Bliss,” frames her feature piece on bone broth in the context of the much-discussed, meat-centric paleo diet, which she identifies as “the diet du jour.” This would... [View more]

Rated: D

Article Review:

"Actually, Raising Beef Is Good For The Planet"

Wall Street Journal - Dec 19, 2014

Grass-Fraud Beef

By James McWilliams, January 6, 2015 // 7 Comments

In her recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, “Actually, Raising Beef Is Good For The Planet,” Nicolette Hahn Niman, a self-described vegetarian rancher, argues that raising cattle has environmental consequences that have been exaggerated by mainstream science and the... [View more]

Rated: F

Article Review:

"As Wild Horses Overrun the West, Ranchers Fear Land Will Be Gobbled Up"

New York Times - Sep 30, 2014

Misrepresenting Wild Horses At The New York Times

By Vickery Eckhoff, January 6, 2015 // 38 Comments

How much disclosure does the media owe its readers? Two New York Times articles illuminate the complexity of this timely question: “Hidden Interests, Closer to Home,” by Public Editor Margaret Sullivan (Sept. 20, 2014), and “As Wild Horses Overrun the West,... [View more]