The heralded openings of horse slaughter plants by the press in the US

Vickery Eckoff reports on the Associated Press and other US media coverage about the return of domestic horse slaughter for human consumption

Reporter, Vickery Eckhoff. Photo: Google+.

There is an excellent, detailed article by Vickery Eckoff — writing for Forbes — concerning media coverage on the subject of the re-opening of domestic slaughterhouses for the production of horse meat.

To get you in the mood, let’s start with:

“So Will Horse Meat Be Produced Anytime Soon in the U.S.?

“Don’t count on the media to tell you that. For the better part of two years—including as recently as November 1—it has been announcing various impending grand openings of Valley Meat or plants in other states, most of them quoting its owner, Rick De Los Santos, and his attorney, A. Blair Dunn. And yet not a single plant has opened.

“The reasons for this are long and complicated. They have mainly to do with the highly unregulated equine slaughter industry’s specific talent for promoting its virtues over its rather sordid history of environmental and humane violations, expensive court battles, unpaid fines and disregard for court orders. Couple that with an unwary news media prone to taking the industry at its word, without fact-checking and with even less appetite for making corrections, and you have a recipe for misinforming the public.”

Here is a real gem of a quote, and the reason for the post title.

“The AP, for its part, has produced 17 articles since June, 2012, giving Mr. De Los Santos, Mr. Dunn and their supporters an open platform for doing just that. And while the AP has defended its coverage of Valley Meat as balanced and factual, an analysis of seven consecutive stories published between June, 6, 2012 and April 13, 2013 shows otherwise.

“While roughly the same number of sources both in favor or against the slaughter plant were interviewed by the AP, the study shows that the views of Mr. De Los Santos and horse slaughter proponents and industry groups commanded a 69.4% share of voice while sources presenting a counter or anti-slaughter view had only a 12.7% share of voice. That is not balanced reporting—and Mr. De Los Santos and Mr. Dunn’s problems with being factual make it especially concerning.”

This type of media abuse has been going on for years concerning the destruction by the US federal government of America’s wild horses and burros.

Now you have had an appetizer, we hope you will go to this link and munch your way through the rest of this tantalizing article by Ms Eckhoff.