Time Writer Admits To Pursuing His Own Angle

Bryan Walsh, who wrote a damning article on modern agriculture in Time magazine, admitted in an AgriTalk interview Monday morning that the story took the angle he wanted to pursue rather than presenting both sides in a balanced, objective manner.

He said it's been a trend at Time to have "more stories angled toward the point of view of the writer.

"Rather than just doing the sort of story where you do 50 percent on one side, 50 percent on the other, you allow the writer to look at it and make some of his own judgments," Walsh said.

He said he looked at the information and thought, "This is the angle I'd like to take."

His article wasn't just critical of big, corporate farms, but rather a system that includes many family farms as well. In the radio interview Monday morning, Walsh said he understands the concern that many family farms could have about his story.

"I understand that. I'm sorry it's been taken that way, because in no way would I want it to be anti-farmer or anti-food. In fact, the whole point of the article is, 'let's pay more attention to our food system (and) give more help to family farms,'" he said.

The article quotes numerous entities critical of modern farming, such as the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, several disenfranchised farmers dismayed about how agriculture has changed, organic advocates and others who sell their farm and food products based on criticizing the products and processes of mainstream farming and ranching.

Reprinted from CattleNetwork.com