CBS Television: Exploiting Fear for Profit and “Entertainment”
Last Monday the popular show “CSI: Miami” ran a segment in which a young woman dies and it turns out to be because of a GMO corn developed by a rogue company called “Bixton Organic Foods.” In the plot, the company willingly puts people at risk. This fictional scenario bears no plausible tie to reality, but it fits well with the simplistic, good guys/bad guys image in the Myth that many people believe about farming. To see how it feels to be the brunt of a distortion like this, I recommend you read a post from a real corn farmer.
So why is it possible for CBS writers to generate fictional “drama” about the “danger of GMO” when in fact GMO technology has been used with complete safety for more than a decade on a gigantic scale? (Having witnessed first-hand the thought and care that went into developing this technology over the past 30 years, I’m not surprised by that safety record). There is an abundance of good information available about this technology including many confirmations of its safety by panel after panel of highly qualified, science and medical experts around the world. I think the reason that the fear of GMO persists in certain extreme circles is the same reason that there are still “birthers” and people who are sure that health reform will lead to “death panels.” Its not that there is much overlap between these demographics but rather that the same mechanism of “selective knowing” is involved.
