Ag Policy Blog
Notes from the Ag Media Summit: Reporting versus Agvocating
I'm sorry about the lack of updates on the blog, but there isn't exactly a whole lot of news.
Ag media have invaded Buffalo, N.Y., this week, injecting money into the local economy. If you are ever in Buffalo, hit the Anchor Bar for wings -- not the Anchor Inn. Don't let your GPS fool you like mine did. If you want a massive prime steak that makes you wake up with a beef hangover, go to the Buffalo Chophouse.
With that, I noted that the Sunday editorial in the Buffalo News was about the farm bill. Titled, "Wrong and Wrong," the editorial lamented the lack of willingness of the House to cap crop insurance premium subsidies for farmers making more than $750,000 AGI while the House pushes for higher SNAP cuts. The editorial also highlighted the GAO report on payments to dead farmers.
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"The takeaway here could be that being a farmer, even a dead one, with a large operation beats being a poor hungry person in need of food stamps."
On Monday, I got to be on a panel with Sarah Muirhead, publisher of Feedstuffs, and Greg Henderson of Drovers. We discussed the issues of ag reporting versus "agvocating," both how the lines have blurred and how we have to approach all those emotional issues in agriculture. In 20 years as a reporter, a great deal has changed in the media environment. Most journalists were simply a name on a byline. Now, with Facebook, Twitter and blogs like this one, we have personalities. It was a theme for multiple panel discussions at the event. We've all had issues or conflicts with different people or groups over stories or commentary. Another panel going on at the same time as ours had survey results from young farmers. The farmers want ag journalists to be agvocates for the industry while at the same time those farmers responded in a separate question that we must remain objective. I can tell you every day we have to balance between agvocating and fairness. Objectivity, though, is in the eye of the beholder.
I closed my rambling discussion by expressing some concern about where journalism will be in society in the coming years. Politicians often like to talk about slippery slopes while they dig canyons. I certainly can't imagine the Justice Department ever going after me because of a USDA whistleblower, but I'm troubled by the Obama administration's pursuit of journalists in leak investigations. Each subsequent White House and executive branch tends to build upon precedents set in the prior administration. So when the Justice Department gets all the phone records for Associated Press reporters over a security leak, it allows the government to further abuse its power down the line.
Then there are so-called "ag gag" laws. Farm lobbies, rural lawmakers and agribusinesses have been trumpeted these laws as a way to stem animal-right activism and those videos of abuse at farms or meatpacking plants. I think those laws will backfire on the industry. Once again, how does that become enforced or broadened over time? I shoot a bunch of photos just because I like the imagery or think that DTN can use the photo for a stock picture to go with a future story. Just last week, I was touring Kansas. I stopped on the side of the road to take pictures of windmills, oil rigs, buffalo grazing, corn suffering from drought stress, center pivots in action, cattle at a feedlot, signs of an ethanol plant, a billboard from a center pivot company. One day, am I and everyone else going to be restricted from photographing from a public road?
The media environment continues to change. Even as we discussed our own perspectives in our respective positions, businesses and readership, the American Farm Bureau Federation on Monday announced it was buying a Cygnus Business Media's publications and agricultural events. The magazines include Farm & Grain Magazine and the Case IH Farm Forum. The farm shows include Farmfest, Dakotafest, Amarillo Farm and Ranch Show, Northern Illinois Farm Show and the IDEAg Interconnectivity Conference. In a news release, AFBF stated that all the current managers and staff for the publicans and events agreed to continue in their positions.
I can be found on Twitter @ChrisClaytonDTN
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