Watch this brief interest story on one of the largest egg farms in Ontario, Canada (click image above).
One of the many challenges of explaining to consumers the true nature of egg production, are stories that are disseminated in the media such as this.
Not only does it promote the idea that egg production is benign, it also becomes the unwitting, and FREE, marketing arm of the egg industry’s public relations machine. Through their contrived nutrition studies and financial capacity (some of which is subsidized by taxpayers), the egg industry already has unrivaled access and reach to manipulate public perception through their marketing and advertising initiatives.
For our efforts, we can only respond to this video story by sending a letter to “viewer mail” on their website (see below). Hopefully, this will catch someone’s eye and forward to the journalist who did the story. And maybe in the future we will have an opportunity to provide another perspective and let the public decide.
Moral and social progress is dependent entirely upon information and the news media has an obligation to provide balanced perspectives. Their complicity in doing the work of a commercial enterprise is not what real journalism is supposed to do. This type of interest story clearly panders to the demographic of their audience which is, in large part, rural. We can only presume that this ingratiates their network to potential advertisers with whom their sales department will be eternally grateful.
Thus, another example of why news departments should never be a profit center for corporate owners and shareholders.
Nigel Osborne is the Executive Dir. of Egg-Truth. Nigel has years of experience related to animal rights and on-line advocacy. Nigel's extensive background in the publishing, outdoor advertising, printing and web design industries over the last 25 years provides him with a strong, creative acumen and business management experience. Through Egg-Truth.com and it's social media channels, Nigel seeks to increase awareness among the public about global egg production and expose the conditions for the billions of hens condemned to laying every year.