Have you noticed an abundance of ads being run in the media about those thousands of hungry children in America?
One in five hungry, standing right next to you on the elevator? Don't you care that they "shtruggle" with hunger?
Or this heartbreaking video, where the sad images of children are utilized to get people to support children who shtruggle with hunger.
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news
about the economy
Did you know these ads are run by the fourth largest lobby in the US, the hunger lobby?
The hunger lobby increased their ads in the past year to ramp up support for food stamps when Congress threatened to trim the SNAP budget and reform the farm bill.
The lobby also wants to get more school sponsored lunches--and breakfasts and dinners--into communities that will become more dependent on government handouts.
The New American takes it apart:
Now, who could be opposed to an effort to feed hungry children? Exactly: The folks at No Kid Hungry — Share Our Strength know how to push the compassion button to raise lots of funds to lobby for ever bigger and more costly government programs, while at the same time creating an ever-expanding welfare class that will be mired in permanent dependency and provide ready foot soldiers for President Obama ... or any other “Hope and Change” candidate who promises more government handouts.
It sure looks like another Leftist racket; any threat to cutting any government program spawns more and more of this insidious propaganda.
The tactic behind running frequent PSAs lends itself to our
current government's fixation about scaring the public.
Why are that
many children hungry in America?
Are we such a terrible place that we do
not provide for even the least among us?
How can we not care? Throw in more PSAs about being prepared for a nuclear attack or some tragedy, toss in some TSA theater around the country and you got yourself a real anxiety attack.
Which is really the purpose behind much of this, isn't it?
The Obama "nudge" campaign is designed to "encourage" people to make "better" choices. His political arm was the first group of people to utilize behavioral science to win re-election.
Cass Sunstein, husband of UN ambassador Samantha Power, the originator of the "nudge" campaign, was recently appointed by Obama to the NSA.
Fox News has more on the ramp up of altering our behavior last summer--all in the name of improving public life--that the administration undertook:
The federal government is hiring what it calls a "Behavioral Insights Team" that will look for ways to subtly influence people's behavior, according to a document describing the program obtained by FoxNews.com. Critics warn there could be unintended consequences to such policies, while supporters say the team could make government and society more efficient.
While the program is still in its early stages, the document shows the White House is already working on such projects with almost a dozen federal departments and agencies including the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture.
Of course, our government entities would never use this type of persuasion for controversial or political ends, would it?
Like maybe, using the IRS to scare away donations to the Republican Party?
Forbes has some interesting facts about where the hunger lobby gets their statistics. It's the USDA:
Where then does the hunger lobby’s “one in five” figure come from? It is the USDA’s estimate of the percentage of “food insecure” families with children. A family is counted as food insecure if it worries the food it bought will run out, can’t afford balanced meals, substitutes cheaper food for more expensive, cuts meal sizes, eats less than it should, or loses weight. [SNIP]
A visit to the Feeding America website is instructive. According to a Forbes study, it is America’s fourth largest charity, collecting more than a billion dollars in donations. Its CEO earns in salary alone more than a half million dollars. Its corporate sponsors represent America’s largest agribusiness companies, food processors, and retailers [SNIP]....
But wait! I thought we are all too fat!If Feeding America used the USDA’s real childhood hunger statistics, even “useful fools” like Beyonce, Matt Damon, or Al Roker (Should we include economist Paul Krugman in that category?) would be hard pressed to bring in donations with the pitch that “one in a thousand children must struggle for food every day.”
Like the global warming debate (ie--it's colder outside caused by
Forbes where writer Gregory analyzes the manipulation:
The hunger-lobby’s Food Research and Action Center takes it a step further. It has decided that hunger causes obesity! So the root cause of obesity is hunger. Yes, you read right. The Food Research and Action Center finds that the stress of living in food-insecure households, the greater exposure to obesity-promoting advertising, fewer parks and playgrounds, the lack of full service groceries, and, not to forget, fast food chains in food-insecure neighborhoods, all make hungry people obese (See: FRAC, Fighting Hunger and Obesity).So, yeah, you don't have to feel guilty when you have enough to eat but 20% of children in this country are going hungry.
And, yeah, radio in particular has been hit hard with these deceitful ads.
And, yeah, if you're a well informed voter, you know it apparently has become government's job to lie to you.
Because that's all we've been getting in recent years, from global weirding to government debt to health care to people being hungry in America.
It's become their job, apparently, to lie to you.
All PSA ads are annoying and am radio shouldn't be treated any differently than local and network television. This is one of those damn mandates from the FCC that congress should abolish. I first heard the argument that poverty caused obesity at a Democratic convention some time in the 1960's. Too poor to buy anything but starchy foods. Wrong, it's not that they over eat it's they don't exercise as in work.
ReplyDeleteRemember when southern black sharecroppers were the longest lived segment of the population? They ate mostly pork and what they could hunt and fried everything, as did my mother in bacon grease, but they were up and working at daylight and didn't stop until supper time. Life style not diet causes most obesity.